


King of the Gutters

by TornSymbiote



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Angst, Bad Decisions, Bottom Eddie Brock, Canon-Typical Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Dom/sub, Dom/sub Undertones, Domestic Violence, Eddie Brock is a Size Queen, Homelessness, Human Disaster Eddie Brock, Human Trafficking, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Masturbation, NOT between Eddie and V, Other, Prostitution, Protective Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Slow Burn, This fic isnt as depressing as this looks lmao, Top Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-09-23 18:33:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 32,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17085512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TornSymbiote/pseuds/TornSymbiote
Summary: So, Eddie made the wrong choice.  The remains of the Life Foundation had him forced into silence, he still had no job and no future, and now there was an alien up his ass to worry about, too.  He was trying to pick up the pieces of his life but found them all slipping through his hands.  Still, how bad could it get?Turns out, pretty damn bad.This is a love story.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know the tags have been kinda worrying for some people, so I'll be giving specific warnings at the start of each chapter when there's something I think needs to be noted. The fic _is_ going to deal with some pretty heavy themes, but at its core, it’s still about a man and his goo in love.

So, Eddie made the wrong choice.

Now don’t get him wrong—at the time, he’d thought it was the right choice. Hell, even Anne thought it was the right choice, which was really saying something. But it didn’t take long before it was blowing up in his face, leaving Eddie scrambling to figure out _what now?_

After Drake and the rocket, after the Life Foundation and an alien up his ass, after ripping a dude’s head off while people were _recording_ him, Eddie Brock found himself backed into a corner by the FBI and the US government in general and who the hell knows how many private sectors of the foundation. He didn’t have many options, managed to convince them that the alien was gone and that he had been forced to do everything as a hapless victim. Still, he got the sense that if they’d had the equipment to study him in a lab they would have.  

Fortunately for Eddie the only place that technology really existed was within the Life Foundation, which was no longer allowed to deal with aliens. Hundreds of NDAs were being handed out like candy, to every police officer and citizen and scientist who’d been involved with or seen a symbiote. Eddie was, obviously, a part of that mix.

“It’ll be fine,” Anne had prompted him. “It’s really, uhm, immensely thorough...” She looked up at his silence, and frowned. “Oh, Edward Brock, do _not_ give me that face. I know that face. This is the right thing to do.”

It was his “I need to report on this” face, which despised the idea that he would be forced to keep his mouth shut all over again.

**Yes, but she’s right Eddie.**

Of course she was. She argued that if no one could talk about it, if the evidence was swept up and pushed under the rug, Eddie was safe from both the handcuffs and scalpel that everyone had seemed itching to use. The bigger concern to him was that both he and Venom would be safe. They could stay with each other, unconcerned about anyone finding out and trying to, god, do whatever someone might do to V.

Christ. He scrubbed his hands over his face before nodding. “I know, I know. I’m on board, really. It just—still doesn’t sit right with me, y’know? Too similar to last time.”

“The Life Foundation is being dismantled, Eddie, it’s okay. And even if the public doesn’t know about the _literal_ aliens, Drake‘s never going to be hurting anyone else. That’s the important part, right?”

 **She has a point.** _Good lord, you gonna remind me every time she talks?_ _This is Anne—of course she has a point._

“You’re right, Annie, yeah. And there’s supposed to be a payout?”

“Yup—from what they have here, it should be a big one.”

Well.  It was not a “big one”. He found that out a couple of days after signing his rights away, in the form of a direct deposit that he couldn’t contest because he wasn’t even allowed to acknowledge that it existed in the first place.

Eddie also found that, even once the Life Foundation had crumbled, he had no job prospects. Right or not, he’d done some really shit journalism and everyone knew it. Couldn’t even defend himself at this point, either. Still, it should be fine. He figured he could coast off the small sum for a bit before figuring his shit out. The too-small symbiote resting in his chest gave a weak affirmative.

 **No worrying about it now, Eddie. Just resting**. He gave his chest a reassuring pat, and nodded. Venom had gotten hurt pretty bad by the explosion—Eddie could literally feel the empty spaces inside him that the symbiote previously had enough mass to fill. So, yeah. Just rest, for now.

And then their “resting” got shit on too, a week later. He’d come back to his apartment with groceries in tow to find an eviction notice pinned proudly to his door.

 _Get the fuck out,_  it said; if not literally, then figuratively. The _you chased away all our tenants with a bunch of dead bodies and bullet holes in the walls_ was also implied. It said he had seven days, which was, christ...not really a lot.

**Problem, Eddie?**

“Go back to sleep, bud, it’s fine. We’re gonna be moving in the next few days, but you don’t need to worry about it.”

He felt the symbiote consider this before they curled back up inside him. **Hm. Pick somewhere good. Not like this shithole.**

Yeah, well—if only, right? Eddie didn’t actually have the money for something better, but V had drifted off again before he got a chance to say so. Whatever. He’d let them be unpleasantly surprised.

Eddie ended up getting a storage unit all the way out in San Mateo in a futile effort to save on money, and then crashing at Anne’s place in what he’d promised would only be a few days. Surprisingly she and Dan didn’t really seem to mind, but Eddie also knew if he was on the couch for more than that he’d probably have to be hospitalized for his back.

**Ridiculous. That’s not going to happen.**

“You really only gonna talk when you want to insult me?”

**Too tired to talk. Stop being an idiot and we wouldn’t have to.**

That wasn’t likely; Eddie was nothing if not an idiot. Case in point:

They’d found an apartment on the edge of the Bayview that was cheap as shit. It was smaller than his last one, which he’d honestly only snagged by a piece of luck to begin with, and in an arguably worse area, but Eddie didn’t have to worry about that anymore. It was also a monthly lease, which suited him perfectly—he just needed to find steady work and then he’d relocate.

Of course, being a monthly rental the landlord wanted payments in cash. Taking the first month’s rent out of his bank account hurt, pretty fucking badly. It wasn’t a pretty picture in there. But one month, he could get work in a month, definitely. He’d lived off his savings for half a year, and now it was time to get it together again. And accept that it might not be journalism, for awhile. Or anything he actually liked doing. Sometimes adults had to do that, right? Do shitty work even when they were college graduates because a degree doesn’t really mean anything, and hope a career falls back into their hands later?

**Stop moping, Eddie. Tastes bad.**

“Yeah, easy for you to say when you’re just along for the free ride. I’m the one who’s gonna be busting my ass trying to keep us fed.” He was walking to meet the landlord with his head down and hands deep in his pockets—no one liked seeing someone talking to themselves on the streets at night. Venom, on the other hand, didn’t give a shit, and flipped lazily inside his gut to throw off his balance.

**Not a free ride. We fixed your heart.**

“You were the one who ate it to begin with, V, christ!”

 _"Hey."_  Oh, great. He kept walking _,_ until V gave a start and sent him a wave of adrenaline as warning. They were too late—in the next moment a hand grabbed the collar of his shirt and tugged him against the brick wall of the building behind him. A man in clothes that somehow fit baggy over a hulking frame kept him there with another hand over his chest; the street was otherwise empty. “Who the fuck’re you talking to?”

Great. Great. Fucking great. “Talking to God, why’s it matter to you?”

“Matters to me ‘cause you’ve got a fat wad of cash in your pocket.” _Was he following us the whole way from the ATM? Shit, V, you didn’t know?_

**Tired, Eddie. Couldn’t have known. What about you?**

Eddie took a sharp breath through his nose and nodded, holding his arms up to his sides. “Alright, listen man, if you need money I can help you, but I really need most of this—“ There was a small clicking noise, and suddenly it was a blade up against his chest, not just a hand.

“—Need what? Need a hole in your gut?”

“Woah, woah, hey.” He tried to speak softly. “Okay, you don’t wanna do that. I’m telling you right now, I get that shit is rough sometimes, I get it, but you _really_ don’t wanna do that.”

**Eddie. He’s hurting us, Eddie, bad guy, we need to—**

_I know, bud, let’s just make sure. He‘s probably in a rough place too._ Not as much as Eddie now, though. The man dug the knife up into his neck a bit, reaching for the money himself.  

“Christ, fine, we warned you. Sorry about this—Venom?” The man paused, confused, his hand halfway into Eddie’s pocket. And then:

Nothing.

No black symbiote suit, or giant tentacles, or anything like that. There was a slight bubbling of what looked like tar over the surface of his skin, and then a moment later it was gone.

**Eddie—**

His feet were swept out from under him, and as he crumpled a foot connected with his gut once, twice, three times. Left him curled up and retching on the ground as the man took the money easily and sauntered off.

“Fuckin’ nut job. Schizophrenic freak. Don’t come back here.” And then he was gone.  

There was silence, for a few moments, as Eddie lay panting. He tried to stand but only made it to his knees before properly vomiting.

**Eddie, we couldn’t—**

“Shit, oh shit, fuck, Venom. Shit. _Shit._  What the fuck happened?”

**Too weak, we’re sorry. Really sorry, Eddie. We tried.**

“Fuck. Okay, it’s okay. Not your fault, I didn’t notice either. It’s alright. We’ll figure it out.” Later. Right now, he was content collapsing back against the wall, trying to ignore the smell of his own bile. He could feel Venom’s guilt, and tried to give a reassuring smile.

“Technically you gave up your life for me, can’t be expected to save my ass every time.”

**No point in doing it if we just let you die later.**

“He just had a knife, he wasn’t planning on hurting us. Just saw me get a lot of money and couldn’t pass it up, probably.”

 **Eddie! Stop defending him! He hurt us.** He paused, thinking a moment. And yeah, the alien was right—it was his nature, though. Eddie gave himself another moment to collect his balls, before finally standing up with a groan.  

He texted the landlord what happened, and asked if for tonight he could pay with his card. Really, he just needed a place to sleep. Thankfully the guy was actually pretty considerate, and agreed to it just for tonight so they could take care of the whole issue and get Eddie into the room.

A couple of hours later, and Eddie was lying on an air mattress in an otherwise completely empty apartment. He had planned on getting the rest of his shit, but besides clothes, a plate and a fork, and shampoo, was it really worth it when he was going to be moving out again as soon as possible? Maybe keeping it bare would make sure he didn’t settle.

The crinkle of vinyl as he flopped onto his back was obnoxious. He’d at least bring his mattress.

**Hm. Eddie?**

“Yeah bud?”

**This sucks.**

“Tell me about it.” He turned over again, shoved his head under his pillow. It was fine. A temporary arrangement, one way or another, given his now way-fucking-worse financial situation.

**You’re a loser, Eddie.**

“Yup. You’ve told me.”

 **Hm.** The symbiote coiled themself gently around, what was it, maybe his liver?—and seemed to relax. **It’s okay though. We like you.**

Eddie laughed at that, and wrapped his arms around himself in a way that in any other context might seem _really_ pathetic. “Good to hear, bud. I like you too.”

So yeah, he might have made the wrong choice. Should have fought them on the NDA so he could get a fucking job again, or at least pushed for more money, or _something._ But compared to this, right now, things could certainly be worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be posting the first 3 chapters at once, then I'll add chapters as I write them :-)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Domestic abuse, pretty gross language, violence, that kinda stuff.

Things got worse.

A lot more quickly than he anticipated, actually. They woke up halfway through the night to a crash, from an apartment somewhere close to theirs. It was silent, after, but the noise had been loud. Definitely not someone just accidentally dropping something, and especially not at 4 am.

Eddie held his breath, listening, but the only thing he could hear was the beating of his heart.

_Hey, bud? Are you able to make that a little quieter?_

**Dumbass. You want me to stop our heart?** Eddie bit down a reply, realizing the symbiote had improved his hearing instead.

Oh. Huh. That worked too. It made it clear that there was _something_ going on—he could just barely make out voices. And so acting on instinct he slipped out of bed, crept forward with small pools of black just _barely_ forming under his feet to muffle his steps. Eddie was making every effort to stay as quiet as possible, before being told very, very clearly that it wouldn’t even be necessary.

This wasn’t an attempted burglary, or a break in, or anything of the sort. Because instead, when he reached his door and slipped it open, he heard the sound of a woman sobbing what seemed to be two doors down. And thanks to V he could hear exactly what was being said.

“Michael, stop, you know I’d never...against you—“

“—Would‘ya _shut the fuck up?_  Fucking cunt.”

There was a thud, dull this time, that Eddie could feel vibrate the walls. There was no way the entire building was sleeping through this, and he was left assuming that it was a regular enough occurrence that everyone had convinced themselves it was best left alone. Christ.

He managed to stay frozen until the female voice cried out again, and he figured he had to do _something._ It was pretty likely he was the only one in the building with a superpowered alien backing him up, even if that alien was kind of worse for wear at the moment. But he didn’t know what he could actually do, maybe just scare the guy? Eddie was moving before he even had an idea.

“Hey, man, I know you’re still weak and all, but if something happens, say, if I got stabbed, just as an example, would you be able to fix it?” His words were a jumbled mess as he stormed down the hall, still barefoot and dressed only in a pair of sweats. Eddie at least managed to hold it together long enough for a hesitant **Yes?** to come through.The moment after, he was pounding a closed fist on the door.

No one came, and he put his ear to the door to listen. It was silent, at first, but that was interrupted by the smallest, _smallest_ gasp. And yeah, it definitely sounded like someone choking. Goddamnit. He started pounding again, hoping whatever was going on in there would stop in favor of the attention being turned towards himself.

Again no one came, and the sounds of a struggle didn’t stop. Another thud and the sound of something rolling across the floor after ceased his attempt at simple redirection. Instead, Eddie pressed back as far as he could to the opposite side of the hallway, before launching himself forward and slamming his shoulder into the door. It flew open with a loud crack that told him part of the door frame had come with it, and he would have been smacked in the face by the immediate rebound if V hadn’t extended a small tendril to stop it. Eddie himself was frozen.

The scene in front of him was atrocious.

Turned out the man (very obviously drunk) had definitely been trying to choke the woman out, because his hands had barely left her neck by the time Eddie reached him. The woman, meanwhile, had slumped to the floor—not unconscious, Eddie could tell she was only wisely pretending to be. There was blood on her face. A _lot._

Red flooded his vision, and when it cleared the man’s face had changed, just briefly. His drunken stupor was nothing like Carl’s cold anger, of course. But it was still Carl’s face that, for the smallest of moments, Eddie saw in front of him. And he remembered being a kid, and too weak to do anything. Even if that really was no different now, he wasn’t alone anymore.

This anger, though, had nothing to do with Venom. This was all Eddie—and he was fucking pissed off.

He started across the room, barely able to hear the man’s protests. “Motherfucker, what d’you think you’re—”

The next crack that sounded was the one of the man’s nose very definitely breaking. He stumbled backwards as Eddie shook out his hand, willing black to coat his fists before he continued. Venom obliged.

 _Thanks bud. Gonna need it._ Eddie shoved the man to the floor and dropped himself over him.  

“You. Son. Of. A. Fuck.” Each word was punctuated by another blow, as he let his fists fly indiscriminately. He wasn’t really concerned about where he was hitting, as long as his fist was connecting somewhere. Must have gotten a bit carried away, in fact—because one moment he was gladly teaching this asshole a lesson, and the next heavy hands on his shoulders were yanking him off. _What?_

He got his senses knocked back into himself pretty quickly when cold metal clamped down over his wrists—thankfully V apparently had enough sense to hide away when it was obvious Eddie didn’t, and then to stay quiet until they were safe again afterwards.  

“So fuckin’ now someone calls the cops, huh?” Someone was reading him his Miranda rights, but he barely heard it, couldn’t be bothered to give a shit as he fought the officer holding him to twist and get one last look at the scene.

He got instant relief: The asshole was currently being handcuffed as well, and the woman had sat up and had a few medics already helping her out. That was the big thing. She had a witness to fight her case for her if she needed now, too.

He just wasn’t sure he’d get the chance. Less than an hour later and Eddie’s position was in a jail cell, lying in a cot that he was pretty ashamed to admit was more comfortable than the temporary set up he’d made. That was probably a good thing, considering he’d be there for awhile.

He couldn’t afford bail. It was a pretty embarrassing situation. And it wasn’t that he didn’t have other people in his life that could pay it for him, it was just that it’d be, you know. Even fucking more embarrassing. The conversation alone was enough to make him groan.

“You need to make a phone call?”

“Uhm.” He’d looked up to the disgruntled officer, who was waiting with a raised eyebrow. She didn’t seem to want to be here any more than he did. “No, thank you. We—I’m alright.”

“What?” It wasn’t the answer she expected.

“I mean, if I can send a text, just so people don’t worry. But I don’t. Uhm. Want the number traced back to here.” Annie would have a field day when she found out. He was hoping to keep that as far away in time as possible, at least for right now.

The symbiote made a noise of agreement. **Don’t know what a field day is. But Anne is going to...Rip us a new one.**  They paused.  **No. Rip** ** _you_** **a new one.**

“Yeah, great, thanks bud. Knew I could rely on you.”

 **You can. Always.** It was sincere but laced with guilt, and caught Eddie off guard—what caught him off guard even more was realizing that the officer was still staring at him. He jumped when he remembered, and then blushed like a middle schooler.

“Uh...Sorry. No phone call.”

“Yeah, okay. Sounds about right.” She turned away, huffing, and Eddie could hear her talking as she continued down the hall. “Send me to deal with the crazy ones one more damn time...”

**Really did it this time, Eddie.**

“So we’re not “we” anymore, huh?”

 ** _I_** **didn’t attack anyone.** Somewhere inside him the symbiote had curled up contently. **I am weak. Couldn’t hurt a fly.**

Eddie tried to choke down laughter but failed, and the sound reverberated through the room as he spoke. “I very distinctly recall you doing just that a few days ago.”

**_Metaphor,_ Eddie.**

“Metaphor my ass.” With a pause, Eddie briefly took in their surroundings. The bright lights were hurting his head, and he raised a hand to rub his temple, jumping slightly when he saw it was covered in blood after.

“Shit, have I been bleeding this entire time?”

**No. We stopped it.**

“Christ, I don’t even remember getting hit… Did I? Get hit?”

 **More than once.** The symbiote seemed to be thinking about something as Eddie stood, splashing his face with water over the sink-toilet. It was pretty red, at first, which wasn’t great, but eventually the water ran clear. He wiped his hands on the shirt they’d given him, and tried to lay back down and relax.

“Relax” was relative, apparently, because that was when Venom finally piped back up.

**Why did you get so angry? Seen bad guys do worse things before.**

Eddie felt his chest lurch slightly at the question.

“Uhm, that’s kind of personal. You can’t just dig through my memories to see for yourself?”

**Tried. Can tell there’s a reason, but can’t find it.**

“Mmm. Yeah.” He turned over on the cot. “Probably shouldn’t have, uh. Done that, in retrospect.”

 **Eddie. Tell us.**  They paused. **Please.**

“S’nothing, V. My dad was an asshole, like that guy. Maybe not as bad, but. Makes me angry. Usually just try to ignore it like everyone else, but it’s different since I’ve got an alien inside me now.

**Hm, yes. Can keep you safe once we’re strong again.**

“Well even now it’s kinda...” He yawned and scrubbed over his eyes. “I don’t know. I shouldn’t have reacted like that. Kinda fucked things up for us again.”

The symbiote offered only a purr in response, and settled somewhere deep inside him, managing to make him feel warm, and—even curled up in a jail cell—safe.

“Let’s get some sleep, bud.”  

Venom was already ahead of him. Even then, Eddie could feel the gentle reassurance of their presence. It made him feel something _more_ that eventually he’d have to face, but right now he could feign blissful ignorance.  

 _Damn alien._ It was a goodnight.


	3. Chapter 3

“Come on, get up.  You’re out of here.”

It was morning, apparently, or maybe the afternoon. Eddie had no real way to tell, it’s not as though there was a window or even a light switch in the cell. Whatever ungodly hour it was, he forced his eyes open and sat up from the cot, groggy.

“Out of here to where?” He’d supposed that waking up would be disorienting, that he’d need a moment to recall the incident last night. But it was the first thought Eddie had at the irritated grunting of the officer’s voice, and it was too quick for him to be going to court, so where was he headed?

“To home, wherever, I don’t care. You can leave.”

“What?” Jesus, he didn’t mean to sound so surprised. But that...was not what he’d been expecting to hear.

“Yeah, girl finally decided to talk to us. Let’s go.” Eddie stumbled to his feet, rushing to follow him out the cell door. It was honestly a struggle to match the older man’s pace, and not just because he was tired and sore as hell.

“Is she—” He jogged to keep up with him, “—Is she ok? I know you can’t say much, just mean physically.”

“Yeah, she’s fine. Already gone home from the hospital, I heard.” Oh. Eddie’s heart dropped a bit, and for a moment there was only the sound of their footsteps echoing in the hall.

“But, the man—where...”

“Christ! Go ask her yourself, I can’t tell you this shit.” At Eddie’s despondent noise the officer finally made eye contact with him, softening and slowing down slightly. “Wow, don’t need to cry about it. She’s okay. Got a restraining order, I think. We’re working on it.”

He looked Eddie over once, and slowly stopped walking entirely. “Huh. Go get some rest, kid. You look like shit.”

Eddie barked out a laugh that he tried to strangle off, caught a little off guard by being called a kid. “Uh, yeah—yes sir. I’m gonna.”

He was home, as much as the apartment was home, less than an hour later. An air mattress and his phone still plugged in to charge was the closest thing to a “welcome home, honey” that he was gonna get. And a quick check to the phone told Eddie he hadn’t missed anyone trying to contact him either, which was reassuring to, y’know, his general sense of importance in the world and shit.

**Who would you have wanted to contact you?**

“Oh, morning big guy.” He took a moment to process the symbiote’s actual words. “Uh, no one I guess, it’s fine. You sleep ok?”

**Not actually sleeping, Eddie. Don’t need to sleep—you won’t either, eventually. We were resting. Closer to...hibernating.**

Eddie froze, gawking for a moment. He made a mental note after recovering to come back to the “I won’t need to sleep” part of that later on.  

“Pretty sure hibernating is like, just sleeping, bud.” Well, maybe? There was a long pause, and then, as if in disbelief:

**You’re a moron, Eddie.**

“Oh, grow up.” He flopped down onto the mattress, and sank halfway to the floor as he picked up his phone. “You wanna come out and reinflate this for me?”

**Hm. Absolutely not.**

“Yeah, me neither...” It was barely a mutter; Eddie was already googling for jobs nearby. He saved a few at what he was pretty sure qualified as “trendy locations” that would probably pay fairly well, which he definitely needed. They’d go check them out later.

**Later?**

“Yup. Gonna get some more sleep right now, then we’re gonna check in on our neighbor. We got really lucky with this one, V.”

**How so?**

“We—well, ‘I’ this time, sorry—can’t just go beating the shit out of people, even if they suck. Could have been in that cell a lot longer, and without anything to eat. Could have ended up in court, too, which wouldn’t be pretty.”

 **Pretty if you were there, Eddie.** It took him a moment to figure out what they meant, which was just. God. He didn’t even know how to respond to that.

“What the hell, man.” It was a whisper, like he couldn’t get his voice to work.  _Jesus, Brock. Get it together._  

It didn’t matter anyways, though, because there wasn’t a response, and he huffed as he rolled onto his back. Apparently they were both gonna rest.

  

The winter sun—clarification, winter-in-California sun—was going down by the time Eddie opened his eyes again, which meant he’d pretty clearly fucked up his whole sleeping schedule. Not that it mattered anyways when he had nowhere to be. Still, though, he wanted to grouse.

He could feel the symbiote’s presence, a gentle pressure in the bottom of the gut that told him where they were currently curled up. It was nice, felt nice, even if they weren’t currently present in the same way as usual. Just knowing they were with him was a blessing, compared to the terrible feeling after the rocket.

They’d still been there, he knew that now, but reduced so much so that Eddie could feel nothing of their presence. And he hadn’t, uhm, taken the greatest care of himself after all of that, thinking the symbiote was dead, so that certainly hadn’t helped Venom out at all.

But they were getting better now. Eddie wasn’t about to kill someone and eat them with his own mouth, so for the past couple of weeks they’d been eating a mix of live seafood and chocolate. Eddie had also tried pet store mice meant to feed snakes, but that’d ended with him heaving his guts out into the sink—it wasn’t because it‘d been the wrong food, but because biting down on its head had been the single worst sensation he’d ever felt in his life. Still, marine life and chocolate seemed to be doing just fine so far.

He felt his stomach, a mix of both Venom’s hunger and his own, stir at the thought of food. Right, it’d been nearly twenty-four hours since they last ate. Eddie dragged himself up out of bed and changed into some less dirty clothes—check on the woman, then go grab some grub, that was the new agenda for the evening.

This time, when he knocked on the door (which had been precariously set back in place) there was an actual response. He could hear a pause at the door, her checking, and then the bolt sliding off. The door swung open.

“Hey, I’m...Oh, shit. I’m so sorry.” Now that the bruises had twelve hours to set in, Eddie could see how bad it actually was. They spread down from her cheek and lips across her neck, dark skin serving as the canvas for a mottled watercolor that he was sure extended further under her loose shirt. It was likely that the way her hair was pulled back was hiding a few head lacerations, too. He swallowed, tried not to shift nervously. Maybe he shouldn’t have come.

Quick brown eyes narrowed at him a few moments longer than comfortable—and yeah, Eddie could take a hint. He held up a hand slowly, the gentlest wave he could manage, and started to turn back to his room.

She cleared her throat before he even managed to take a full step, and when he turned around he was gestured quickly inside without a word before she bolted the door behind him. Apparently she’d decided he was welcome? If that was the case, he’d try not to fuck this up. Eddie followed her like a lost dog to the kitchen table, which was markedly missing a chair that he remembered seeing smashed last night. And when she pointed for him to sit, he sat, as she hovered over top of him.

“I, uhm. Wanted to apologize for what I did last night, and—“

“—No.” She shook her head once and crossed her arms: protectively, not defensively. There was another pause and she looked around the room, seeming to think. “Don’t apologize. He was going to kill me and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.” She was smart—noticed the look on Eddie’s face pretty quickly. “It’s not as if it’s _easy.”_

“No, I wasn’t saying—“

“—There was _nothing_ I could do. But. You put the power back in my hands, and now he’s gone. Apartment’s in my name now, and they’re actually charging him this time because they know there’s a witness, even if they weren’t planning to actually use you as one.” She paused. “So I’m in your debt. But don’t abuse that.”

“In my debt?” His voice was a fucking squeak. “You don’t...don’t need to be in my debt.”

“It’s fine. Did you come here for anything else?” Eddie paused, wringing his hands over his lap. This hadn’t gone how he’d expected it, so far, though maybe he should learn to just stop expecting things.

“Uhm. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.” He laughed softly, but without any real humor. “Yeah, okay, maybe I wanted to appease my own guilt and make sure I hadn’t made things worse for you. Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She paused. “You could have made it worse, if you hadn’t waited until the last second. Made it obvious how bad it was. Now it’s okay.”

Eddie felt something bubbling in his throat, but couldn’t figure out what it was he needed to say. He didn’t want to...implicate her in this, or suggest that “she should have left” or any of the bullshit people liked to spew, but she was. Unusual. Not what he’d been expecting. Didn’t seem like she matched, well, what was probably just a stereotype of the type of woman this usually happened to. He tried to be good about this kind of shit, but found himself realizing there was always more to learn via the fact that he was at an utter loss here.

Apparently he’d been silent too long, because she was walking back to the door and motioning for him to go. He obliged, feeling something on the ground crunch slightly under his feet. Whatever he’d been been holding in decided, just as he walked out, to finally bubble to the surface—Eddie turned back in the doorway, speaking softly.

“If you ever do need any help, though—my, uhm, ex is a lawyer. She’s really good, public defender. And I’m two doors over. I’m not going to...” He knew how that looked. “I’m not trying to manipulate you or guilt you or anything. Last night...made me think of my dad, so I just. Don’t want anyone suffering.”

Her eyes softened for the first time in the entire conversation, but other than that her demeanor didn’t change, still tense and ready to either flee or fight. “Okay. Thanks. I’m Rita, by the way.”

“Oh—yeah, sorry, I’m Eddie.”

“Eddie Brock. We all know who you are. Sorry you ended up in this shithole with the rest of the scum.” His brows furrowed, and as she shut the door Rita added: “Hopefully you don’t become part of it.” It was followed by the slide of the deadbolt, and Eddie was alone.

He went to sit in the stairwell, checking the bottom of his shoe to see what he’d stepped on.

 **Not alone, Eddie. Never alone.**  Oh, _jesus._  He jumped slightly, usually couldn’t help it when his other made an unexpected appearance, which was pretty much constantly the case now that they were too weak to be around all the time.

“Well, we got pretty close there for a second after Riot. But yeah, we’re together now, together forever babe…” His tone was sarcastic, but not out of spite. He wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, honestly. “How you feelin’ anyways? Any better?” Eddie turned his foot over, scanning the worn rubber underneath. There was a shard of glass stuck in the sole.

 **Hungry**. When he pulled it out, he saw there was dried blood on it. It made his stomach turn.

“Mm, I feel you. Goin’ to get food right now, anything you want?” Clearing his throat as he stood to leave, Eddie looked around briefly before tucking the shard into his pocket. Yeah, alright, not going to just toss it on the ground, it was too big. He’d throw it out when there was an actual trash bin.

**Chocolate. Dark chocolate. Do the 95%.**

Eddie grimaced, “Nasty, but okay. Anything else? Don’t think you can just live off chocolate.”

**No, we can. But would need a lot, easier to get what we need in brains—faster. Right right now we’re small, so chocolate will work.**

“Oh. Huh.” Outside, the evening air felt fucking amazing on his face, and he had to resist the urge to breathe deeply because he knew it’d smell like rotting trash and piss. “You serious about that? Needing chocolate and brains?”

 **Yes, Eddie. Need brains again once we’re big.**   

“Alright, that’s noted. Good info. Anything else I should know?”

 **Hm.**  They paused in thought. **You walk too slow.**

“Anything that’s not you bullying me?”

 **Eddie!** His entire gut felt like it flipped inside him, and it came across as indignant, somehow, as he doubled over with a heave. **You think it’s funny too!**

“Okay okay, yes, you got me, please don’t ever do that to my stomach again as long as we both shall live.”

 **Oh. Sorry.** They at least had the grace to sound sheepish.

“S’alright, bud. Just prefer to go a day without puking, you know?” He felt, somehow, the equivalent of a nod in return, followed by a _very_ obnoxious grumbling of his stomach. Eddie was sure it owed itself slightly to intentional alien manipulation, and laughed, nodding as he picked up the pace. “Okay, I get it, we’re going. Gross chocolate and maybe brains if I can find any, and you don’t mess with my stomach anymore.”

**Deal.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of a slice-of-life chapter that sets up some important bits for later, and. Y'know. Some gay stuff.

This was the seventh “no” he’d gotten today, and Eddie was _this_ close to losing it.

“I don’t understand why, I don’t need to work out front, I can just—whatever you need, I’ll do it!”

“No, man, I’m sorry.” The manager, a kid younger than he was with a mustache that Eddie could begrudgingly admit looked kinda cool on him, shook his head. “It’s not about the customers, it’s the principle of the matter. The ethics. You know, right? No hard feelings, but I can’t hire you.”

“Can’t, or won’t?” It was dangerously close to a snarl, which was probably not the best way to go about getting a job. This one seemed to have already landed in the trash, though, so no real harm.

“Does it matter?” Did it _matter_ ? God, this kid was really pushing it. And maybe it didn’t matter, but he didn’t bother answering as he turned and stormed out. That might not have been mature, or whatever, but Eddie was _really_ gonna lose his cool if he didn’t.

 **We could eat them, Eddie.** Right about now, he wouldn’t really mind that.

“Yeah, bud. Don’t think we’re able to yet, though.” Eddie felt a considerate hum from somewhere deep inside him, and then the cool slick of the symbiote oozing out over his entire frame below the neck. They were completely covered, he could feel it, and slowly the black expanded until he just barely heard the popping of a seam somewhere in his jacket. A waver, and that seemed to be the limit, before they slinked back inside him.

“Hey, that was even more today, V! Nice going!” It was genuine excitement, and his pace down the sidewalk slowed a little bit as his anger ebbed away. Even with the distraction, though, the situation wasn’t good.

He’d made a list of some places hiring, and already tried a few hardware stores, some local groceries (the last one being mustache boy’s joint), just whatever was pretty low-key that he thought he could sneak in to. Unless he legally changed his name—or his entire identity—though, it didn’t seem like he’d get anywhere.

The Life Foundation was really well liked, among both the conservative and liberal crowds (albeit for different reasons). A message of aid, making new miracle medications and actually selling them at prices people could afford, contributing to renewable energy efforts in San Francisco and then slowly further out—it was pretty good stuff. Looked good on the surface, anyways, until you found out how they found so many cures and who was paying the price for that and how many lives they threw away for the “greater good”.

But most people weren’t seeing that, even after Eddie’s best efforts and especially now that no one could fucking talk about it. So Eddie was just the asshole that hated people with cancer, and that wasn’t very marketable, either for himself or anyone considering hiring him. He’d even been turned away from a place called “Cool Super Discount Market,” for christ’s sake.

**Don’t need a job, Eddie—we can keep you safe. And healthy. And well fed. What do we need money for?**

“I’m pretty sure the picture you’re painting is one where we live on the streets on a people-only diet, and where you’re my primary care physician and my clothes and maybe my house too? If so, then no dice.” Eddie could feel them huffing.

**Would be perfectly fine.**

“I mean yeah, it’d be fine, but. Y’know, man. I wouldn’t _like_ it. I wanna...work my way back into journalism. Prove myself reliable. Help stop bad people. I wouldn’t be happy, otherwise.” Those seemed to be the magic words, and he felt the symbiote’s sudden understanding.

 **Need Eddie happy.** Well, if that was what cleared it up for them, he wasn’t going to argue.

“Aw. That’s nice bud.” They were headed through the seedier parts of the city back to his apartment. Eddie had pretty much exhausted his list of potential jobs, but even if he made another stop he’d blow a fuse if he got another no. Still, what now?

“So I knew we’d have to stay low-key with a job, until everything with the Life Foundation thoroughly dies down, but I think we’re gonna have to look even lower.”

**How do you mean?**

“I dunno, probably somewhere that either has a high turnover rate or somewhere that no one reads any news, which feels pretty unlikely.”

**Hm.  What about here?**

Eddie froze in the middle of the sidewalk, and when he looked over his shoulder it was to a “now hiring” sign staring him pretty aggressively in the face. Looked up, and saw a red neon sign reading “COMPUTERS” flashing even more aggressively.

“Oh. Huh. Thanks, V.”

The first thing he noticed as he pushed open the door was the massive amount of screens staring him in the face. They had computers, all right, all of them seemingly hooked up to various security cameras in the building that displayed Eddie’s, uhm, raggedy form. He’d rather not see that, honestly, considering he’d even tried to clean up today for the sake of his job hunt.

The second thing he noticed, as the bells on the door rang when it shut and a man cleared his throat, was that there was actually another person in the room with him.  

A man was seated behind a counter that, for as clean as this place was kept, still looked dingy. He was halfway to being what Eddie would call ancient, and so despite the fact that he apparently owned an electronics store he was still surprised to see the man typing away on a laptop.

“Need anythin’ specific let me know.” The man squinted at Eddie, seeming to take a closer look. “Would prefer you didn’t touch anythin’ you weren’t planning on buyin’.” Alright, bad start, but he could make it work.

“I was actually hoping to inquire about a job?” It came out as a question, which definitely wasn’t his intent. Still got the message across, in any case.

“Huh. Why?”

“Wh..why?” A slight rumbling in the back of his neck told him that Venom was laughing at him, and he shook a hand behind his back in what he hoped read as _fuck off._

“What d’you need a job for?”

“Uhm, I...lost my last job.” The man grunted something indistinct, and held up one finger as he pulled something up on his laptop with the other hand. Eddie tried to make it look natural as he drifted closer to the desk, but the fact that he had to make the effort meant it probably didn’t.  

He got the cue that he was to wait for the man to finish, and absently picked up one of the business cards on the desk—if he did it with more tentacles than actual human hand, it went unnoticed. The card was simple, blue letters on a white card. The only name listed was “Joseph Ellis, proprietor”.

“You’re Joseph?” A sharp click, and a printer started that made Eddie flinch in the silence.  

“Yup. Here.” The man—Joseph, apparently—reached, picked up the few sheets that had printed and dropped them down in front of Eddie. It was an application. “Fill this out and bring it back to me tomorrow.”

“Oh, great, thank you!  Is it—uhm, I’m Eddie Brock, if that’s...okay with you?”

“Is that supposed to mean anythin’ to me?” Well. Shit. That was a fuckup, he was just...used to it. Eddie floundered, opening his mouth and coming up dry. He managed to get out a long “uhm..” before successfully cutting himself off; Joseph only sighed. “You can use a computer?”

“Uh, yes sir.”

“Microsoft office? Adobe?” Eddie nodded, and clasped his hands together behind his back, hopeful. “Then fill that out and bring it back to me tomorrow.” The relief was instantaneous.

“God, thank you _so_ much. Thank you. I’ll have it to you—when do you open? Ten? I’ll have it to you then, okay?” He snatched up the papers and was already halfway out the door when he called back over his shoulder, “At ten!”

 

Eddie was back at ten.

Not only that, but Joseph, who later instructed that Eddie call him Joe, had him stay while he read over the application, traded it for a W-4, and told him to bring it back with him tomorrow. He said it with a certain look on his face that Eddie figured he’d have to decipher sooner or later.

“When are you available?”

“Uh, every...every day, yeah.”

“Today?” And suddenly the first day of his job—a real, in-person, paying job, the first in a long ass time—got started.

Joe showed him around as Eddie stroked a small pool of black inside his pocket, keeping the symbiote satisfied when he couldn’t pay as much attention to them. The store consisted of the front showroom and a back room, and that was it. Turned out, Eddie really just needed to familiarize himself with the stock they had, but otherwise prices were marked and Joe kept a document with what he could offer to someone who had something to sell. If the model wasn’t on the document, Eddie didn’t buy it off of them. Joe was also _very_ clear that he was to use the checkbook in the lockbox and never cash, which he tried his best not to keep in the store. That, alongside the number of security cameras the man had collecting footage 24/7, displayed a level of caution that Eddie could appreciate.

Eddie gathered that what Joe really wanted was to retire from working in the store entirely, while continuing to function as its owner. That was fine with him, and it meant by the end of the day Joe had told Eddie that he would run the store on his own tomorrow after he opened it for him (and yes, it came with a warning that Joe would be watching on from home, and that he had insurance and to still not try anything funny, but he’d take what he could get). They shook hands, and turned in opposite directions to leave.

He managed to hold himself together until he was sure Joe wouldn’t hear him shouting.

“Fuck!” He jumped, just a little bit, with his hands raised in fists. “V, yes!  Hey, hey, come out for a second—” A head appeared out of his chest with a slight _plop_ noise, and Eddie cupped it with both hands and planted his lips onto the symbiote’s forehead with an exaggerated kissing sound. “Our asses are saved, this is actually a _really good job,_ we’re essentially gonna be alone together every day and—oh. Uhm. Venom?”  

By the time Eddie had managed to calm down and look at V, they were… Hm. No longer a head and more like a hovering fluid mass.

“You, uh, you okay there bud?” The black froze, then melted back into his chest before Eddie could blink. He breathed a moment, unsure of what had just happened.

 **You kissed us, Eddie.** Oh. Oh, fuck. He did, didn’t he?

“Shit, man, I didn’t mean. Uhm. I did, yeah, I’m sorry.” No response, just a wiggling sensation in his groin, which was—Christ, _distracting_ as well. Of course that was where V went to hide. “I won’t...do it again?” Wrong answer.

 **No! We want** ** _more!_** It was loud, nearly a scream, and Eddie couldn’t help planting his hands over his ears on instinct. To be safe he kept them there, though it’s not as if he could actually soften the blow of a voice screaming inside his fucking head.

“Okay, okay! Come back out and I will.” Eddie waited, and cautiously, hesitantly, they came back, albeit smaller this time. “You want...it again?” He didn’t get a yes, per se, but Venom did send Eddie a wave of affirmation that he knew was intended to have the same effect.

“Alright, well…” Eddie cupped their head, more gently than he’d bothered to before, and again pressed a kiss to their forehead. “Like that?”

Venom only shuddered that time, instead of all out _melting,_ and managed to answer. **Yes, Eddie.** They seemed to think. **Feels good when you touch, always feels good, but...better when it’s your lips.** Huh. He’d had a few partners over time that had echoed the same sentiment.

“Here, V, how about—back inside, for now, alright? Until we’re home. But if you—” He raised a hand, and the symbiote disappeared, before a small amount of black flooded the surface of his knuckles. “—Yeah, just like that. And you can touch my lips while we walk. Okay?”

He raised the back of his hand to his mouth as he started the trek to their apartment, alternated between rubbing it there and actually planting small kisses. Eddie...wasn’t quite sure how he felt about this development, but they’d technically kissed before, hadn’t they? He could argue with himself that this was nothing different—and so he did. Because Eddie Brock wasn’t ready to admit that maybe he had feelings for the _alien living inside his body,_ and most certainly wasn’t ready to admit that it seemed like the alien felt the same way.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this earlier than I planned, because I'm impatient, so with that in mind give me a bit of time to get chapter 6 out. But please note! This chapter is where the "human trafficking" tag begins coming into play, as well as that warning for violence. Be careful if that's something that could be upsetting to you. There's a summary at the end of the chapter, if you want to skim over what happens more specifically before you engage.

Eddie found out later that his first day alone on the job had apparently been a test, and one that he passed. He and Joe fell into an every-other-day routine once Eddie had shown he could be trusted, and if the man had noticed that Eddie spent the majority of every day just talking aloud to an empty room, he had the good grace not to comment on it.

He was sure the man saw, though. It didn’t seem that Joe had been kidding when he told Eddie he’d be watching from home. And if that was the case, he also probably also thought Eddie had some sort of...oral fixation?

Because once Eddie had gone past that, uhm, small kissing barrier with Venom, neither of them had been able to go back. At home on their new mattress on the floor, watching Netflix or writing or whatever, Eddie either had a black hand to his lips or tendrils rolling in front of them to keep touching. At work it was the same, and “absentmindedly kissing an alien” became his new standard.

Turns out that what felt good to V, felt good to him too—not just vice versa (which was the only way Eddie could get them to accept him eating, like, anything other than chocolate and tatertots and some sort of live meat. He _did_ like, fucking popcorn or something every once in awhile too). And the touch of Eddie’s lips for some reason was just about the most pleasurable thing either of them had felt in their bond before. Eddie thus far had stubbornly refused to dwell on the implications of that, or to think about what else might feel that good, but it was probably just a matter of time.

**What’s just a matter of time, Eddie?**

“Hm?” He continued fucking around on his laptop at the front desk, until a tendril wrapped under his chin and straightened his head to look up.

 **You. Thinking.** Oh, great. Eddie felt heat rushing to his face.

“Just, uhm. This.” The black around his jaw drifted over his lips, and he obligingly kissed, the purr from the symbiote afterwards rattling him just as much. It was...increasingly difficult to resist making a noise in return.

 **What about this? Feels good.** They pressed the tendril back against his lips, harder, until he kissed again. **Mmm...Delicious.**

Oh, _christ._ Eddie sputtered, and shoved V away from him. “D-delicious? V, man, _bud._ Listen. I can’t actually...have this conversation right now. At work. We can talk more tonight, okay?”

 **Hm. After dinner?** Shit, dinner, yeah. Eddie fought the urge to groan: They’d agreed, well, Eddie had agreed, to meet Anne and Dan for dinner after work. At Anne’s condo, which was already gonna be tricky. But it’d been a hot second since the rocket and aliens nearly taking over the world and all of that, and Eddie had figured it was a good idea. Now that he was actually going to have to go, though, he was having second thoughts.

“Yeah, after dinner. You remember we talked about this?”

**Yes Eddie. Don’t let them find out.**

“Right, yeah, and be good please?” He felt the symbiote snort at that.

 **How about** **_you_ ** **be good, Eddie.** Jesus fucking christ. That time Eddie did make a noise, and buried his face in his hands as if he could hide it.

“V, oh my god. That’s the kind of shit I’m talking about! Don’t do that tonight. Holy shit.”

 **Hm. That tasted interesting.** **_Why?_ **

“I’m not a neuroscientist, man, I don’t know. I didn’t even know brain chemicals had a taste before you came along.” It was a weak attempt at declining the question, but Venom took the bait. Instead of pressing him further, they just raised his hand back to his lips and had Eddie kiss them more, which was in all likelihood the most normal things were gonna get.

 

It was dark by the time they locked up and headed to Anne’s, and Eddie tried his best not to get really fucking anxious during the ride there. He failed, obviously, and had to wipe his hands on his jeans multiple times before he was even willing to approach the door.

**What are you so worried about?**

“Uh…” Eddie paused, scratched the back of his neck. “Not sure, really. Last time I saw them I was sleeping on their couch, which wasn’t a great exit. And—”

**—And you think Dan is attractive.**

“Jesus! That is exactly what I need you to _not_ do once we’re inside, got it?” This alien was going to be the death of him, he swore.

 **Well it’s** **_true._** Yeah, yeah it was true, yes maybe that was a _small ass part_ of why he was anxious, but it was more... The concept of dinner with his ex and her boyfriend and also trying to hide the fact that he still had an alien in him who was, by the way, really fucking obnoxious.

 **Rude, Eddie. Just trying to be helpful.** Helpful his ass. Eddie hovered outside the door for a second longer before finally going to knock.

Obviously it was at that exact moment that Dan swung the door open.

“Eddie! Come in, it’s good to see you man.” Shit. He thrust his raised hand back down—probably a little too fast—as he stepped forward. “How’ve you been? You look good!”

“Eh, not hard to look good when you met me at my lowest, y’know?” Eddie laughed at himself, and realized Dan wasn’t exactly following suite, instead looking a little bit...concerned? “But, uh, yeah, I’ve been good. Really good, actually. Hey Annie.” They’d made their way into the kitchen, Dan went to something on the stove and Eddie plopped down at his usual seat at the table. Well, old seat, he guessed.

“You said you’re doing well, Eddie?” Anne looked like she was already halfway through a glass of wine, which meant this night might be a bit more promising than he’d anticipated.  

“Uh, yeah, I’ve got a new apartment settled and a job—”

“—Oh, that’s great!” Oof. Eddie thought about correcting her, but just decided to roll with it.

“Yeah, it’s uh. Not back in journalism yet, I might have messed that up for awhile, y’know, until everything dies back down. But it’s a steady job and I have money coming back in again. And I figure in the meantime I can see about doing some freelance stuff, publish under a different name.” Annie was nodding, a smile on her face that meant she was genuinely excited for him. The look made his heart hurt but he wasn’t sure why.

**Maybe because we are sleeping on a mattress on the floor and she does not know that?**

“It’s _temporary.”_

“What?” Oh. That came out a bit aggressive, and now Anne and Dan were both staring at him with a _look_ on their faces. He scrambled to recover.

“It’s temporary—not being in journalism. Because, yeah, not gonna repeat the Daily Globe incident. So I’m sticking it out in San Fran.” _Listen, man, I told you—I’m begging you. Just wait until after dinner._

Dan nodded solemnly, as if he’d said something that spoke to him. If it wasn’t just him bullshitting then it meant Annie had shared Eddie’s New York exploits with him, which was a little bit embarrassing if he was being honest. It also meant that it was time for him to change the topic away from himself.

“But what about you both? Public defender’s office treating you well, Annie?” As he spoke Dan set down a hot steaming plate of _something_ on the table, and christ, did it smell good. It only made sense that the man could cook on top of everything else.

 **Sound jealous, Eddie.** Really, again? Eddie wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, and he gladly accepted one of the beers Dan offered, because if what he _thought_ it meant was correct, he’d need it. _I’m not jealous, bud. Just think that Dan’s a pretty cool guy._

 **You make it obvious enough.** And, _yup_ , there it was. He took a long swig of the drink, trying his best not to choke, and then refocused on Anne’s voice.

“—And with Adachi being reelected, they’re starting to change the focus from drugs to trafficking, but I’ve been too busy to really be involved there. You’d really be amazed, Eddie, I had to deal with this case around a commissioner charged with domestic assault—”

“—Mm!” Eddie grunted into his bottle to stop her before he slammed it back to the table. “Hey, I’d been meaning to ask you, in your experience, what to do about something like that? Figured you’d know a hell of a lot more than me.”

“Oh, is someone..?”

“Uh, yeah, I mean...Yeah. In my apartment building.” Her eyes widened for the briefest of moments, before she leaned forward and seemed to recite something.

“Keep a journal of what you’re hearing, when you’re hearing it. And she might not want to talk to you—oh, ‘she’?” Eddie nodded and tried to speak, but Anne was already continuing. “Given that I assume she has no idea who you are, and it’s also likely she won’t want law enforcement involved, don’t push her. And for the love of god, Eddie, don’t do anything stupid, okay?”  

Huh. He scrubbed over the back of his head, a little bit sheepish. “Yeah, well uh, actually—move forward a bit in the timeline. Little too late for that part of it.”

Anne squinted at him, trying to read what he was implying. “Eddie. Tell me you didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?” That came from Dan, who was—bless him—sitting with a bite of food halfway into his mouth.

“I, uh. Yeah. It’s okay now, though, she told me once I got back. Got a restraining order, I think. I just wanna know, like...how to help her moving forward, without being an asshole or scaring her worse or anything like that.”

“Got back from where, Eddie?”

“Huh?”

“When you got back from where?” Oh. Fuck, did he say that?

 **Sure did.** _V, hon, I’m begging you._ And christ, he was just digging this hole from every angle, wasn’t he? Would have to deal with that once he was home too, because the word “hon” had the symbiote doing flips in his gut.

“Got back from...being out.” Yeah, he was screwed. Anne didn’t say anything, just gave him that look that she should _not_ legally be allowed to use outside of the bedroom, when Eddie was on his knees of his own goddamn volition. The noise Dan made told him he knew the look, too, which somehow made it worse. “Uhm. I might have intervened, physically. And gotten...detained?”

_“Eddie.”_

“Look, it’s fine! It really, really _is_ fine. I just don’t know what to do now, to help, that’s all. I tried to talk to her but she didn’t seem, great…”

“Yeah, no wonder.” Anne sighed once Eddie finally flinched at her words. “Okay, okay. Just, jesus Eddie, do you ever learn? You got really lucky.”

Eddie groaned. “Yeah, yeah, we know.”

“We?” _Hey V, can you like, kill me every time I open my mouth? I really need to stop talking tonight._

“Me and the woman—He was. Close to killing her.” That seemed to change Anne’s demeanor, a small deflated sound left her lips and Eddie scrambled to recover the mood. “Shit, sorry. Sorry, I promise it’s okay now. But if you had any resources, or anything…”

“Yeah, I’ll send you an email tomorrow with some stuff.” Eddie nodded a silent thanks.

For a moment the three of them **(four, Eddie)** just sat and ate, in a quiet that was more indicative of them being lost in thought than it was something irrevocable. It was Dan, the savior, who brought it back to life, talking fondly of a man who came into the hospital that day with a BAC of 0.58%.  Eddie choked on his food when he’d said it, and suddenly the conversation was alive and well.

So by the time he was walking out the door, all of them halfway drunk and Eddie very satisfied with the night, it was with a smile spread across his face. Rocky start to the evening, sure, but it was easy to forget just how much he really enjoyed Anne’s company.

**Dan too, Eddie, we like Dan.**

“Oh, s’ya like him now, yeah?” The words came out a bit more slurred than he’d expected—It was entirely possible he shouldn’t have been driving. On reflection, he sent Anne a quick text (“Leavinf bike here for tonight, will come get it tomorrow1”) and committed himself to a long ass trek home.

 **Yes, Eddie. We think he’s** **_cute_ ** **.** Eddie paused on the sidewalk. Could symbiotes get drunk? **Don’t know what means. Feel good right now. Warm inside you, Eddie.**

“Sound drunk t’me, buddy.” He picked up their pace a little bit, realizing that it left them a bit more exposed than he was used to.  “Hey, cn’you, I dunno, process it faster? So we _aren’t_ drunk while we walk through th’Loin at night?”

**Process what?**

“Th’beer! Oh man. ‘M kinda worse off than I thought. Had a great time though, right bud? Y’did too?”

 **Hm, yes Eddie.** It was drawn out like a hiss that tickled the back of Eddie’s spine. **Had a good time. Your poison feels good.** A pause, they seemed to be moving around in him. **What do we use to process this stuff?**

“Uh, s’the liver. Upper right of my chest, I think? S’like a dark red or purple or somethin’, I dunno man, the liver.” In the amount of time it took Eddie to blink, he was suddenly overcome with a _massive_ urge to piss, and barely stopped himself from tripping and falling on his face. “—Woah, V, holy shit. What was that?”

 **Processed it, Eddie.** Fuck, jesus, he didn’t want to be _that guy_ but found himself bolting for the nearest alley anyways. It wasn’t until he was actually pissing that he realized what had just happened.

“Hey, bud, did you...process _all_ of it?”

**Hm. Yes.**

Eddie whistled into the night air. “Shit, V, that’s impressive as hell. Not what I was expecting, but good to know we can do that.” He considered going back for his bike but fuck it, they’d made it pretty far already and it was nice out, they could walk. That was not to mention that he couldn’t think of a way to explain to Annie that “actually I’m not really drunk anymore and it’s totally safe for me to take the bike now” without just sounding like he was so drunk that he’d convinced himself he wasn’t.

**And if we run into any bad people, we will eat them, right Eddie?**

“I dunno bud, depends—can _you_ eat them?” He felt the symbiote huffing, before they oozed out over his clothes, travelling up his neck until, with one last burst of effort, Eddie was completely engulfed. _Oh, woah, Venom!_

A moment later and it was like a rubber band snapping, the symbiote was tugged back under his skin until he landed pooled up in Eddie’s chest. He could feel that they were annoyed, but shit, that was the furthest they’d gotten since V had gotten hurt.

“Hey, hey, what are you pouting for, that was awesome! You’re so close!”

 **Still not close enough to keep you safe, Eddie. Don’t want you to get hurt again.** _Oh._ They were still dwelling on that—it made Eddie’s chest swell, but he didn’t want to feel loved at V’s expense.

“Bud, no, it’s okay. Here, if we run into someone, you could cover my face and hands? Just need sharp teeth and claws, that’s all.” Silence. “And, you know, if we _did_ run into someone and you were my mouth, we could..theoretically... _maybe_ eat them.”

 **Eddie! Really?** It’d be the first time they’d eaten someone since those initial few days of their bond, and even though there was a certain gang member running a certain protection racket that he’d intended to go after before anyone else, Eddie was open to discussion.

“Yeah, V, I mean—y’know, the hope is always that no one is getting hurt and that we don’t need to kill anyone, but we can go for it if that happens, okay?” Black tendrils shot out of his body and landed over him in a quick embrace, before fleeing back out of sight. The “thank you” was unspoken, but Eddie knew what they’d meant, and nodded with a smile as they started forward again.

The symbiote’s excitement had been genuinely sweet, especially when Eddie didn’t think about the fact that it was excitement about getting to kill someone, and so Eddie meandered a _bit_ longer than strictly necessary. It was well into the night by the time that they could both concede it was time to just go home, however, exhausted by their search for something other than drug deals that Eddie argued didn’t make either of the parties bad people.

The amount of build up it took, Eddie shouldn’t have been surprised when what they _did_ stumble on was such a doozy.

It wasn’t the girl’s screams they heard first—it was the men’s. Or, Eddie figured, more accurately the pimps’.

“You’re gonna die today! You’re gonna fuckin’ die if you don’t get your stupid ass back in that car!” And, yeah, that sounded like a “bad person” if Eddie’d ever heard one before. It was faint, but he was instantly trekking towards it, and as he did the voices got clearer.

“I don’t want to go back, I don’t...I don’t want to go back! Please!” That was the girl, now, and he chased the sound, V spilling out over his head and hands just like they’d discussed. Once they rounded a corner into an alley and found them, though, even the fact that he was viewing the scene through Venom’s eyes couldn’t make him want to puke any less.

The girl was almost naked, “almost” save for a pair of men’s underwear she was desperately trying to keep held up as two men were dragging her back to some sort of service truck. And “girl” was the most accurate term—she couldn’t have been a day over 14, max. Pretty damn emaciated, covered in bruises and burns and god knows what fucking _fluid_ that was, and Eddie was going to _lose it_ on these motherfuckers.

 **“What the** **_fuck_ ** **do you think you are doing?”** All three of them froze. The only sound was the girl’s ragged breaths as they stormed closer, until one of the men holding her dropped her to speak.

“What the fuck _is_ that?” The other man—and the girl, Eddie cursed loudly from inside of Venom—weren’t planning on sticking around to find out. Both raced back into the truck, starting it and speeding off with Eddie only barely getting a glimpse of the logo on the side. He’d remember it if he saw it again, but couldn’t actually read what it said.

No matter. They still had this asshole to deal with, and they were certain they could make him talk.

A tentacle had snatched the man off of the street before he’d collected himself to move, and in a matter of moments they had him pressed up against a building, covered everywhere in a swirling black mass that Eddie insisted be kept _just_ tight enough to hurt. Venom obliged, and slammed him against the wall once for good measure.

 **“Where is he taking her?”** The man didn’t answer, wouldn’t meet their eyes even as they leaned forward over him, he just writhed and panted from within the tendrils holding him. _We don’t have time for this, V._ They nodded, and Eddie found out that Venom’s answer to that was to promptly lean forward and bite the man’s right hand clean off. He threw his head back against the brick wall and howled, and they flooded his mouth full of black, too.

 **“Are you going to talk to us?”** The black in his mouth melted away once he nodded, and it seemed like once the man had started he couldn’t stop.

“We’re just—just her pimps, I d-don’t, oh my god, the Audric Hotel, that’s where they work them, we’re based—based there, I swear they c-come willingly.”

 **“The Audric Hotel?”** The man nodded, still pleading something that they didn’t bother to listen to. **“Good boy.”**

And Venom’s answer, that time, was eating his head and dropping his body in the alley.

A moment later and Eddie was racing on foot to the hotel, he’d passed it a million times when he was living at his old place and _fuck if this had been happening that entire time, too._ Eddie felt his anger growing. If that fucker had been lying, he had no way of finding the girl and whoever else they had, and then what?

**We’ll find her, Eddie. We will.**

The faith was nice, and thankfully he’d apparently told the truth—the hotel, advertising itself as “adults only”, was perched on top of a Vietnamese joint, and Eddie could see the truck parked in the alley next to it. _Bingo._

It was parked and turned off, but he could feel the heat coming off the engine—definitely the same truck. Still, in the minutes it’d taken to get here the entire alley had been emptied, and the truck with it. When he rapped a fist on each side of the truck there wasn’t a response to tell him that someone was stuck inside, either, and so after taking a picture of the logo and the license it’d expended its usefulness.

The Audric was next, then, and he couldn’t find it in himself to stop and even _think_ for a moment before slamming the doors open and storming inside.

“Hey, is that blood? Woah, hey, you can’t—do you even have a room?”

He went past the front desk, straight up the stairs to the rooms. The first floor was empty and quiet, and Eddie had all intentions of continuing to check all the way up the building, when a hand landed on his shoulder.

Okay. Eddie was, admittedly, a little bit riled up—he realized only once he’d slammed the concierge against the wall by his fat neck, but didn’t make a move to let him back down or get a decent breath. Instead he had Venom ooze out to cover his forearm, giving him a boost as he lifted him up off his feet. If this fucker had anything to do with this, he’d die too.

“Did a man and a girl just come in here?”

“W-what?”

“Did a _man_ and a _fucking girl_ just come in here? Are you _deaf?!”_  

“No, no! No one’s been in all night!”

 **Not lying, Eddie. Can usually taste it in the air when they do.** Alright. Eddie nodded and let him go. The man just slumped to the ground, gasping, and seemed baffled when he simply turned and left the way he came. But if the man wasn’t lying then he had no more business here, at least right now.

He stumbled around the alley more, heart in his throat at the growing realization that he’d lost them. It grew into a bubbling panic that left his hands shaking—Eddie couldn’t find a single damn thing to tell him where they’d gone or how they’d managed to abandon the truck and just disappear. Somewhere, vaguely, he heard V trying to calm him down, but the blood rushing in his ears drowned it out. There were _right there,_ he saw them and they were _here_ and how could they have just fucking _vanished?_

The thoughts rolled around inside him until he wasn’t searching so much as pacing, building until, with a growl, he slammed his fist into the wall. There was a crack as his fingers broke and then healed a moment later, and he pulled his hand back to hit again.

 **Eddie!** The symbiote froze his arm mid-swing, and Eddie trembled as he fought against it. Still, they held fast. **Stop it! Hurting us!**

“That’s the fucking _point_ , goddamnit, let me—” He tried with his other arm to the same result, and was left with nothing to do but tilt his head back and scream in frustration. “Fuck! V, fuck! We let them get away!”

**Eddie—**

“—No, no, no ‘Eddie’, let my arms go _right fucking now_.”

 **Not if you are going to break your hand again!** Eddie kept fighting them and getting nowhere, until with a rush they let go of arms—in favor of wrapping his entire torso with black tendrils instead.

After a moment of stubborn struggling, he realized it wasn’t to restrict him. It was...a hug. And once he realized it he let himself go limp, entirely held up by their hold. For a moment Eddie lost himself, and something dangerously close to a sob slipped out of his mouth as they were still standing in that goddamn alley.

 **Let’s go home, Eddie. We’ll find them tomorrow. Okay?** He had the energy to nod, and that was about it.

Responding to his silent plea, it was Venom who took control and carried him home. This time, Eddie let them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Eddie is holding down his new job, meanwhile he keeps kissing V—a lot—and being stubborn about admitting any feelings. They promise to talk about it later, however, before going to dinner with Anne and Dan. There the topic of domestic violence comes up, and Anne finds out Eddie was arrested. She's stern with him but agrees to send him some resources to help Rita.  
> Eddie and V leave, and Eddie promises that if they find anyone "bad" that tonight V is allowed to eat them. They look around for a little bit, and end up stumbling upon a young girl in her early teens trying to escape from two men. She's not clothed and shows signs of physical abuse, and Eddie confronts them. The girl and one of the men escape, but Venom corners the remaining man. They find out from him where the other two were headed before killing him and following.  
> Once at the location he'd given, they are unable to find the girl, and Eddie has a panic attack and wants to take it out on himself physically. V doesn't let him, and eventually Eddie allows them to take him home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This deals with the aftermath of last chapter, Eddie reminiscing on it but nothing directly happening—I don't think any specific warnings apply.

They made it to the top of the stairs in his building before their effort, Eddie and V’s both, ran out. Eddie crumpled, landing on the top step and hanging his head in his hands, the breath he’d meant to steady himself coming out ragged.

“Goddamnit. She was so young, V, jesus...It’s. Oh my god.” The more he thought back to seeing her, the worse the vision became, adding blood where there wasn’t and somehow making her ribs become even more prominent and it didn’t even _matter_ if he was making details up, because the fact that she was still out there somewhere with however many more like her was making him very, _very_ sick.

He groaned in place of actually puking, dropping his head down further between his knees and scrubbing over the back of his head like he could wash the memory out of himself. Eddie wanted to, christ, just ram his head into the floor, but the mere thought brought a warning growl from the symbiote.

“M’sorry, bud, just can’t. Stop thinking about it. Should have gone faster. Gone after the truck instead of the one who stayed behind, or. Fuck. I don’t know. _Fuck.”_ His hands clenched empty air on either side of his head, wanting to tug his hair even when V wasn’t letting him.

In his despondence, he entirely missed the sound of a door sliding open.

“Eddie?” _Christ._ He jumped at the sound of Rita’s voice, flinching back as he looked to see her standing guarded in her doorway. She was in PJs, and he had to resist the urge to pull out his phone and check the time. Either way, it had to be _late._

“Shit, sorry, did I wake you up? Sorry, m’okay—”

“—I was awake.” She paused, looked him over with furrowed brows. “Is that your blood?” Eddie looked down at himself, and fuck, yeah, he hadn’t even noticed. It wasn’t as much as it could have been, given his prior activities, but it was enough that he realized his entire torso felt sticky. The shirt was definitely headed for the trash. It was a side effect of Venom only covering part of him, he figured.

“Uhm, no, it’s. Not. Uhm…” He tried to laugh but it definitely sounded closer to a sob than anything, and he flinched again at the sound of his own voice. It was now that Eddie could really appreciate Rita’s resolve, when she only opened the door further and stood to the side.

“Will I be safe?” Safe? Eddie looked up through his lashes, letting out a small noise of question. “If I let you come into my apartment. Will I be safe.”

Oh. He took a shuddery breath and nodded, and...On reflection, he was honestly winded that she was even considering _talking_ to him right now, let alone inviting him into her apartment. But still, she stepped back and motioned for him to come in—neither of them commented on the fact that she bolted the door shut behind them, with a lock that Eddie was certain had only recently been installed.

He followed her with shuffling steps to the table, sitting down once she motioned and almost smiling when again she only stood over him. They’d managed to make a routine of his fuck ups, it seemed.

“Tell me what happened. Don’t leave anything out.” Eddie let the silence linger for a moment, but Rita wasn’t deterred. She only waited, and so he drew in a breath.

He’d leave out the part about the alien inside him, obviously, but other than that Eddie was willing to spill his guts if that’s what she wanted. He told her everything, about dinner and walking home through the Tenderloin (she gave him a _look_ when he told her that, but otherwise remained quiet) and finding the men in the alley, he implied that he might just have wailed on the one man a bit to get the hotel name out of him and not, y’know, eaten his head, and then going to the Audric—

“—The Audric?” Her hands landed on the table with a slam that had Eddie jumping. He cursed, rubbed his knee where he’d banged it, and nodded.

“Yeah, real skeezy looking, on top of an Asian joint?” Rita swore, pulled out the chair and actually sat down, which was...unnerving, for some reason Eddie couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“Alright. How old did you say she was?”

“Uhm.” He didn’t want to dwell on the fact that he’d seen, essentially, a prepubescent girl’s nearly naked form. “I’d say 13, 14. _Fuck._ I should—I should call the police, right? Even though…” The “even though I killed someone and left their body behind” was perhaps the biggest argument against doing so, but god, he was way out of his depth.

“Don’t bother calling the police.” So he’d have to deal with the police again, and then—oh, _what?_ Eddie looked up slowly, a question dancing behind his lips that Rita cut off. “I know this group. The police already know. They…”

She cleared her throat and looked away from him, and yeah, that was _definitely_ unnerving. It was the first time in her presence that Rita’s eyes had been anywhere besides locked with Eddie’s, otherwise always on guard.

“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to, Rita.”

“I know.” It was harsh. “If I didn’t want to tell you something then I wouldn’t tell you it.” Eddie nodded, face pale. It was his turn to wait, he supposed.

Her fingers tapped on the wood of the table, and she cleared her throat once more before finally speaking. “There’s a least a couple of officers that are regular clients. They know about it—the trafficking, the minors. Didn’t realize they were still operating there.”

Eddie tried not to speak before he’d finished processing what her words meant, but it was difficult, and he was already rushing into his next idea. “So, okay. No police. Is there another way, if I want to...stop them?” She stared at him with disbelief, but he kept talking. “I followed them, to the hotel. The truck was there but they weren’t, and I couldn’t find anything.”

“Are you actually fucking serious right now?” Eddie’s eyes went wide, but she wasn’t finished. “If you’re implying you want to single handedly take down San Francisco’s largest sex trafficking ring, you’re even more stupid than I thought.”

“Not single handedly, but—”

“—Well _I’m_ most certainly not going to help.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.” He was scrambling to recover, and suddenly felt V holding onto his hand. It helped, calmed him down a little bit, and he squeezed before continuing. “I would never ask that of you, especially if…”

 _“Don’t.”_ Shit. He nodded, but inwardly winced—it was V’s turn to squeeze his hand, that time, and took Rita a bit before she continued. “Just. Listen. This group has been around for years. If you’re going to get involved, keep me out of it, and in turn I’ll keep an eye out for your name in the obituaries.”

She stood up, giving him a look that Eddie...really wasn’t sure how to interpret. He thought, for a moment, that she was going to kick him out, and if she did he understood. But instead:

“The apartment building connected to the hotel gives them access to a couple of rooms on the third floor from their side. That’s where they used to operate. Hotel doesn’t rent those rooms out to anyone unless someone specifically asks, which means they’ve already been in contact with the group.” A pause. “Keep me _out of this,_  you understand, Brock?”

Eddie stood up from the table with her, holding out a hand and almost sighing with relief when she reached out to shake it. “I will. Thank you.”

She let his hand go, looking down at her palm after then back up to Eddie’s shirt. “Burn that. And better hope no one saw you. No one loses that much blood without ending up in the papers the next day.”

Huh. He had to start giving her more credit, only managed an apologetic smile as he headed for the door. She waved him on, and he heard it lock behind him again once he was out in the hallway.

 **Feeling a little better, Eddie.** He nodded, managed to get into his apartment all the way to the mattress. This time when he slumped forward it was least to comfort, and for a while he just laid face down, trying to breathe through the blanket his face was smashed against.

 **Getting blood on it**.

“Shit, yeah. Thanks V.” It was muffled, and his response to the issue was rolling onto his back, which was—as far as he knew—clean. Rita had helped ground him, but he was still. Y’know. Feeling the effects of the evening.

Eddie shuddered and rubbed his eyes. He didn’t want to think about it again, not right now. They’d deal with it tomorrow. And even when Eddie didn’t fall asleep right away, he still didn’t move from him spot on the mattress, stubbornly refusing to move or talk or even exist if he could have helped it. Eventually, the welcome black of sleep did overtake him.

 

Waking up, the first thing he realized was that he was _cold_ —the feeling slowly morphed into the understanding that he’d been...stripped down to his briefs and socks. Eddie groaned and flopped sideways.

“Hope to god that was you, V, and not someone sneaking into my apartment last night.” It felt weird, thinking about them stripping him as he slept. Still, he appreciated the gesture, even if he could still feel the blood that’d crusted onto the blanket in the time before the symbiote had helped him out.

The appreciation turned into concern, though, when he didn’t get an answer. Considering he had what he _assumed_ was the galaxy’s worst smart mouth living inside him, that was pretty odd. It was enough to prompt him to actually sit up, and—

“—Ow, jesus. Nevermind.”

His body kinda felt like he’d gotten run over by a truck. It seemed reasonable enough to hope that V hadn’t taken him out on some kinda midnight outing or something, but with the way he felt right now? Who could say.

“Buddy? You in there?” The slightest warmth inside of him gave his answer, but no talking. Eddie took a deep breath, thinking. It felt...kind of shy? Or maybe like they were thinking?

“Hey, I’m sorry I snapped at you last night. And thank you for helping me, keeping me safe… Do you wanna come out?” Eddie paused, but still nothing. Just a small flurry of movement, barely noticeable, before they went still again. “Venom, listen bud, I’m really sorry. I’m serious, I really appreciate it, even if I wasn’t being good to you.”

 **“We know, Eddie.”** A small head emerged from the flat of his palm, and god, the relief was instantaneous. Characteristically that head led itself up to Eddie’s mouth, and butted his lips gently until he kissed. The normalcy of it—his new normalcy—made him want to cry, compared to the night before.

“Why were you hiding then, love?” Something changed at that. The head seemed to go staticky for a moment, and then dove back down Eddie’s palm and through his arm. He felt them pooled up near his groin again, which was the only way he was able to realize what he just said. And _jesus,_  he really needed to get a grip. Or in the least learn to keep his mouth in check.

Whatever. They’d obviously noticed, so it was too late to pretend he hadn’t said it, but hopefully they wouldn’t bring it up. And instead of addressing it himself or pressing V further, he just reached blindly for his phone. There was a text from Annie, making sure he’d gotten home okay, but that was it—Eddie, however, was mostly concerned with the fact that it was nearly 3 pm.

“Shit.” He flopped right back down onto the mattress, pulling his pillow over his eyes. He already didn’t want to deal with today, and somehow knowing that he had so little time at this point made him despise it even more. “Appreciate you getting those clothes off, but would’ve been nice to get a wake up call too.”

 **Sorry.** It was so sincere that Eddie winced.

“Oh no, V, wow—I was just kidding, it’s okay.” He figured he’d try again. “Will you come out, please? I wanna see you.” Maybe it was unorthodox to mentally flash an image of V’s opalescent eyes and his, y’know, innocent desire to view them, but it worked. Eddie knew they couldn’t resist a compliment.

When they did come out it was from low on his chest, looking up at Eddie through eyes that, actually? Were kind of pretty. “You make those nice and big for me, huh bud?”

 **“Maybe, Eddie.”** They nudged up under his chin, before seeming to think twice about it and making themselves a little bigger. Which was...odd.

Everything about Venom today was odd so far, actually. Eddie stroked alongside the tendril emerging out from him and thought for a moment. His clothes were piled up on the floor next to the mattress, nothing else seemed… _Oh._

“You looking at somethin’ on my laptop?” It was open on the floor, definitely not how he’d left it.

They shuddered at the accusation, intending not to answer, but relented when Eddie raised an eyebrow. “ **Doing research.”**

“Doing what? Didn’t know you could even use a computer.”

 **“We are not stupid, Eddie. Klyntar technology is superior to yours anyways.”** Hm. Eddie couldn’t argue with that, because he had no goddamn idea what that technology even consisted of. Instead of bothering to protest, he just reached and pulled his laptop up onto the mattress with him.

Everything was closed when he opened it, but a quick check of his history told him, uh. Far more than he wanted to know, actually.

Whatever V had started by “researching”, they’d apparently been lead to…The years of porn Eddie had saved. Which was. Jesus. He scrolled past it, face burning.

First search: “Why does touching lips feel good?” Then “why does kissing feel good?”, and whatever shitty Yahoo answer V had consulted on that one led to “what is masturbation?”, which was fucking _something,_  wasn’t it? Eddie’s embarrassment drew a deep growl out of the symbiote.

 **“We did not get to talk after dinner. Was still curious.”** Eddie tried to say something, he really did, but all that came out was a groan as he slammed the laptop shut and buried himself into his blankets. He was _really_ not prepared for this conversation. V, on the other hand, only manifested out the back of his neck and nudged him.

**“You want to be controlled like the people in those videos, Eddie?”**

“Jesus _christ!”_ It was muffled, shouted into his mattress, but still. “Go back to acting shy, maybe?” And obviously, the question produced the opposite result. He could tell the symbiote had started to shrink back, but Eddie suddenly felt a surge of resolve that wasn’t his own, and realized a question was coming.

 **“No. We want…you to masturbate.”** That was—shit.He groaned again, flipped over so he was splayed out on his back as V shifted to hover above him.

“V, man, you can’t just. Ask me that.”

 **“We weren’t asking.”** And that was even worse. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the feeling in his groin that now he couldn’t even blame on an alien using it as a house. **“It’ll feel good, correct?”**

Eddie barely managed a nod. **“And you used to use it to feel better. When you were sad.”** Something nudged up under his chin, rubbing and purring, and it wasn’t like Eddie had to open his eyes to know what V was doing. **“Don’t we want to feel good, Eddie? Wouldn’t it help us?”**

He swatted them away. “Hold on, man, just—hold on. Let me think a second.”

On the surface, Eddie felt like he should be shutting this down as quickly as possible. Not giving V any ammunition and refusing to address the topic and just. What, doing that for the rest of his life? Because that was the problem—it wasn’t as if he wasn’t going to ever have sex again, let alone not jack off.

The fact that he, also, felt himself get _excited_ by the idea the symbiote was presenting was another issue altogether. Yeah, he felt like the right thing to do would to say no. But it’d be a lie to say that’s what he wanted.

None of that mattered right now, anyways. Eddie didn’t think he’d be able to get hard if he tried.

**Could help with that, Eddie.**

God. He took in a shuddery breath and shook his head. “No, bud, I don’t want that right now. I don’t think I will for a bit, okay? We can, though—sometime soon, I promise. But not right now, please.”

**Tomorrow?**

“Christ, V, let’s just. Go check out that hotel. One thing at a time, dunno if I can handle much more than that today.” He got an affirmative growl, which was probably the most he could ask for anyways. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, right? Or whatever the saying was.

Eddie sighed as he sat up to get moving, all the while wondering what the hell his life had become.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two side notes:  
> 1) Every comment I get on this pretty damn near makes me tear up, just so yall know  
> 2) I'm also at [tornsymbiote](https://tornsymbiote.tumblr.com) on tumblr if you wanna come party


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings, but please see end notes!

“Alright, here’s the plan.” Eddie was nearing the end of their hike, a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He’d shoved his dirty clothes and some trash he had laying around the apartment into it to make it seem like he was travelling, though it still just sort of looked like a saggy gym bag. But it was fine, he was betting on people not looking too closely anyways. “We’re only going in to check out the third floor and see which room numbers border the apartments, then we’ll come back tomorrow so we can specifically request it like Rita said.”

**And if we run into anyone, we will eat them?**

“No, nope, that’s what we’re _not_ doing today. Today is about not being noticed, got it?” He wasn’t sure how much luck he’d have on that front, though, especially after his many fuck ups yesterday.

**It is okay, Eddie.**

“Mm. We’ll see.” That depended on how today went—only after would he be willing to even _consider_ using the word “okay”. Unfortunately, they were already off to a bad start.

They arrived at the hotel and Eddie ducked his head as he slipped into the door. It was a lot more graceful than his appearance the night before, and he hoped to get to the stairs without anyone noticing him.

He ended up frozen in place in the doorway, instead.

 _Fuck me fuck me fuck me._ A pivot, and he was marching his ass right back outside. The kid at the front desk was the same as the one last night, which didn’t make any sense as far as Eddie was concerned—though who the fuck was asking him, anyway? He’d been talking with someone and hadn’t seen him, but _god,_ that was going to complicate things.

“Shit, okay, maybe we can…” He peered into the alley, and felt a smile start dancing across his lips. “Hey V, you think you can get us up there?”

There was a fire escape, and while it didn’t get anywhere near the ground the doors on each floor were blessedly open, as with all the windows on the building. No AC, then, which worked in his favor. And while the gate to the alley was closed today, Eddie figured it wouldn’t be an issue. Not letting anyone see him was the bigger concern.

**We’ve got it, Eddie.**

“Alright, just keep it subt—holy _fuck!”_ He didn’t even have a moment to process what Venom was doing before they shot a black tendril out of one of his hands, and Eddie was yanked up to to the third story balcony without time to so much as blink. The symbiote dropped him there pretty unceremoniously, and he scrambled back up to his feet.

“Jesus, man!” He tried to steady his legs, which were most definitely _not_ shaking, as he scanned the street below to make sure no one had seen.

**No one saw.**

“Fuck, would it kill you to give me a warning?”

 **You are welcome.** Smug bastard. Eddie grunted, dusted off his pants, and slipped inside the door.

He felt the red paint peeling off under his fingers, revealing rust underneath, and the slight movement it took to fit inside let out a loud enough creak that he flinched. Inside it was dim and warm, and Eddie stood still for a few moments as he waited for his eyes to adjust.

The hallway, once he could see it, was blessedly empty. All the doors were a terrible mint green color that didn’t do much to hide their grime, and there was some sort of _smell_ —he wasn’t sure how much of that could be owed to the fact that parts of the ceiling were falling off, exposing rafters underneath that he was pretty damn sure were rotting, as opposed to being owed to whatever went on in this building.

It was… Not a great place. You couldn’t have convinced him to sleep with someone here, anyways. But apparently that wasn’t an issue for other people: Though admittedly, if they didn’t take issue with sleeping with children then what _would_ they take issue with? Eddie shuddered slightly, as he wandered down the hall to the rooms bordering the apartment next door.

There were three of them—316, 317, and 318. None of them were unlocked when he checked, though it was worth a shot. He couldn’t hear noise coming from any of them either, so this was a dead end beyond getting the room numbers.

That was all he needed, anyways. He’d see if he could get into the apartment building, but wasn’t optimistic it’d work out. Still, Eddie was done here—feeling cocky, he used the actual stairs to get back down. He planned in advance the way he’d wink at the kid at the desk, making V rumble in amusement.

**His face will look delicious.**

“Yeah, bud, just as long as he doesn’t call the police.” But it’d be worth it, he figured, as a smile danced over his lips.

They didn’t get to see it. Eddie burst out of the stairwell into the lobby, and looked up with a grin to—huh. Nothing.

The desk was empty; the only person in the room was a man sitting in one of the lobby’s chairs. They met eyes for a moment as Eddie paused, then continued out of the building with a nod in the man’s direction. He was familiar, though Eddie wasn’t sure where he’d seen him.

**Don’t remember him either. Not one of the men in the alley.**

“Dunno, probably just passed him on the way here or something. Let’s check out the apartment before we go to get our bike, yeah?” He got a small noise of agreement as he rounded the corner outside.

Despite the sign reading “Furnished Rooms AVAILABLE, Please come inside for details” over the entrance, the building’s gate was very thoroughly locked. He thought about hanging around waiting to follow someone inside, but after parking himself on the sidewalk for five minutes he was tired of the looks he was getting, and figured it was better no one around here got a good look at his face anyways.

Shrugging to himself, Eddie turned and started the walk to Anne’s. He’d tried, and he’d be back tomorrow—how much could change in a day?

“You wanna pick anything up while we’re out, V?”

**Hm. Need to get rid of that shirt, first.**

“Shit, I forgot about that. We’ll dump it somewhere, thanks bud.”

He hoisted the duffel bag back over his shoulder, smiling to himself at V’s contended mutterings as he walked off. And if he’d turned around, he’d have noticed the same man leaning against the building’s corner watching him go—

But Eddie didn’t turn around.

 

He was sat down in front of his laptop late that evening, finally getting to dig into the hotel and the truck’s logo.

The hotel’s own website didn’t give much, just proudly advertised themselves as a two-star property and listed their rates. The reviews online weren’t that helpful either, he saw the bedbug accusations, the complaints about the lack of AC and the people shooting up outside: just the stuff he was expecting. A review that was a couple of years old had uploaded pictures of a massive hole in one of the walls that went pretty deep into the building, which could have been promising. But even after downloading it and amping up the brightness Eddie couldn’t make out where the hole was going, so again it wasn’t much help. The reviews that actually mentioned the building being “full of prostitutes” never gave the details he was looking for, either.

And then, with a bit more digging, Eddie hit gold.

There was a lawsuit from the San Francisco City Attorney's Office about three years ago, against four men with the same last name who owned, alongside a dozen other buildings, the Audric. _A family business._ Eddie frowned as he pressed further.

Among other things, the suit was concerned with tenant harassment, code violations, and exploiting public funds for transitional housing—there was a specific mention of abuses and criminal activity that was apparently not tied to the owners, which Eddie scoffed at. They referenced a case the year prior. Eddie followed that lead, and found a story from four years ago that was somehow even worse.

Apparently a drug ring had been operated out of the hotel for some time, selling heroin and cocaine, that only fell apart once a dismembered body was found outside and the rest of the limbs in the third floor bathroom. _Funny—history repeats itself._ Surveillance showed their leader dropping them there, and was arrested: he later died in custody of “natural causes”. The ring seemed to have fallen apart after that.

“So that’s why the trafficking ring popped up, there was a vacuum they could fill.” He laughed without any real humor. “That’s what they meant by ‘human trafficking is the new crack cocaine’, I guess.”

 **You think if we leave a dismembered body in the alley that it will destroy** **_this_ ** **ring, too?**

“Hoping that was a joke, bud. Won’t work unless we know who the leader is to frame him.” The fact that Eddie could honestly consider that as an option didn’t really register as a problem to him.

He turned to the logo next, some company called “ImmunoVista”. What he found on that was, remarkably, more worrying than the shit on the hotel.

It used to be a Seattle pharmaceutical company, developing antibody-drug conjugates alongside preventative cancer vaccines—”used to be” being the key phrase. They, without explanation, apparently sold out about a month back. Not incidentally, that was the same time the Life Foundation literally blew up as well.

The CEO was listed as Brian W. MacVay, whose name Eddie already knew: he had been on the Board of Directors of the Life Foundation. And, _fuck,_ that wasn’t good at all.

“Don’t like this, big guy, don’t like this one bit.” A small black tendril slipped out from his shoulder, and rubbed up under his chin before settling in front of his lips. Venom’s head emerged from the other shoulder and rubbed on the opposite side, waiting until Eddie kissed to speak.

 **“We know, Eddie. Can taste your anxiety.”** A pause, and another kiss, before they continued. **“But it is not him. We stopped the rocket, stopped Drake.”**

“I know _that,_ but how do we explain them using their truck? Makes me think that someone’s still out there, just running under a different name, and this is…

**“How they are getting ‘volunteers’.”**

Eddie nodded, “Yeah, exactly. I have even more of an obligation to see this through, if that’s really the case.”

 **“We are not obligated to anything that we do not want to.”** He stroked under their chin to keep his fingers busy and not tugging at his hair, and almost laughed as the tendril did the same back to him. It was a nice respite.

“And what about us? If they’re still out there, you don’t think we’ll be next on their list?”

 **“No, Eddie. They know we will destroy them if they try. Just like we are going to destroy these men.”** That time he did laugh—though it was laced with sadness—as he let his head rest forward against the symbiote’s.

“Alright, alright. We _are_ going back to the hotel after work tomorrow, though—and that’s because I want to.”

**“Get the hotel room, find the girl, eat someone or maybe more, and then—”**

“—Don’t finish that sentence.” He snapped his laptop shut and pulled the blanket up over his head. Usually V would duck back inside of him, but instead they just crouched under the blanket with him. Eddie blew air in their face, rolling his eyes. “You wanna get takeout or something?”

 **“Want to** **_talk,_ ** **Eddie.”**

“Mm. Yeah, bud. I know.” He closed his eyes and took a breath, trying to push down the second burst of anxiety that had triggered.

Maybe anxiety was the wrong word, he was just…nervous. Nervous about where this was gonna lead, nervous if it went where Eddie was expecting that he’d fuck it up, nervous that he was some kind of manipulative asshole if he, what, let an alien watch him jack off? An alien that apparently really _wanted_ to watch him jack off?

Yeah, alright. He couldn’t keep putting it off, they shared a _brain_ for fuck’s sake. And since there wasn’t an excuse to avoid the conversation this time around, Eddie figured he might as well bite the bullet.

“Okay. We can talk.”

His eyes were still closed as he felt a surge of glee shoot through his blood, and suddenly a burst of cold air skirted over his face. He opened his eyes once he recovered, to see—

“Jesus! Holy _shit_ you’re big!” Eddie tried to sit up on the mattress but fell flat backwards instead, taking a moment to let his fucking heart slow down. There was a...an entire torso coming out of his hips, a huge, _hulking_ torso and Venom was grinning down at him, teeth glistening in a way that Eddie knew to take as the threat of drooling.

A problem: Seeing V so wholly out of his body like this was making him feel shy in a way he’d never felt with the symbiote before. A bigger problem: Seeing V so wholly out of his body like this was making him, had already made him, swell up with blood, maybe, quite a bit.

 **“Let’s talk, Eddie.”** They paused, squinted at him before their eyes suddenly widened. **“Eddie! You like this, too!”**

 _“Damnit_ V.” Eddie scrubbed his hands over his face, it felt like his entire body was burning up. “Yes, I like it, you knew I would you damn, you, fuck—”

He was silenced when a massive clawed hand clamped down over his mouth, muffling his protests from underneath. Didn’t really matter: apparently with all his blood in his dick and not in his brain he couldn’t think of a damn thing to say, anyways. And _fuck,_  did he ache.

The symbiote let him go gently, and sat watching Eddie with what would have been a raised eyebrow on anyone else. **“We want you to masturbate.”** Eddie nodded, he knew. **“Now, Eddie.”**

“Are you gonna—” It came out as a squeak, and Eddie cleared his throat and tried again. “Are you gonna sit there and watch?”

 **“Hm.”** They watched him for a moment, before shaking their head and slowly falling back inside of him. **No, it makes you want to hide just as much as it makes you hard. Already done plenty of the latter.** Eddie let out a soft moan before he caught himself.

“For someone who apparently just learned what masturbating was, you’re pretty good at the whole ‘dirty talk’ thing.”

**Been bonded with species that had sex before, Eddie… That, and you had a lot of porn saved.**

“Christ, yeah.” He let his head lay back on his pillow. If he was really going to do this, then he needed to get a bit more with the whole “biting the bullet” thing he’d decided they were doing today. “You saw all of that, huh? Guess now’s a good a time as any to ask questions, if you have them. Though if you’re the sex expert I guess you already know.”

Eddie would be lying if V’s irritated growl didn’t get him a bit excited as well—but he knew they did have questions. What he got (without any goddamn warning), however, was still unexpected:

 **Touch yourself while we do.** And that was...good, yeah. Fuck. He managed not to squeak, just bit his lip and nodded as he tucked his hand under the waistband of his sweats. Eddie wasn’t sure why he was just...going along with this, with V’s commands, but it felt fucking good to finally get his hand wrapped around his cock.

**We know why you are going along with it, we saw. You want to be told what to do.**

“S'not that simple though, man, it’s gotta— _ah—_ it’s gotta be the right context.” He was trying to just stroke himself slowly, but it was hard, _he_ was hard. Still, some aspect of his psyche was saying that he’d want to savor this moment.

**This is the right context?**

“Well I trust, uh, trust you, y’know? So yeah, I like it when you uh, boss me around a little, I guess. Make me do things.” This was already going a lot further than he’d been prepared for: Just masturbating was a hell of a lot different than discussing kink with your alien partner at the same time, but at the moment it felt too damn good for Eddie to really put in the energy to question it.

**Hm. We like it too. Like it when you’re… when you’re good.**

He could _feel_ his dick jump in his hand, and managed to morph his moan into a laugh. At the same time, he tried to ignore the way his languid strokes were already starting to speed up, and the fact that he was setting himself up to cum in his pants like a middle schooler. “You uh, you learn that from the porn too, bud?”

V seemed pleased that he’d noticed. **Yes, Eddie. And the way it makes you feel when we say it tastes good.** A considerate hum, and then they pressed further. **It’s good when you listen—we like to be in control. Stroke faster, Eddie, we can tell you want to.**

He nodded to no one in particular as he complied, and this time holding back his moan didn’t work. “You like, _fuck,_ you like being in control?”

**Yes. Can control you and keep you safe.**

“Hah, well that’s one— _shit,_ that’s really fucking good _—_ one way of looking at it, and that’s fine, uh, during times like this, but not always, y’know?”

**Context. We know.**

“Okay, good, that’s—that’s good, fuck.” He lifted his head for the sole purpose of slamming it back down onto the pillow again, and tried desperately to get his pants off one handed. Something—someone—tugged them down the rest of the way, and he grunted his thanks.

It was hitting him, in that moment, that he hadn’t touched himself once for well over a month. He had previously been pretty sure balls didn’t actually, y’know, build up jizz if he didn’t jack off every once in a while, but he was damned if that wasn’t exactly how it felt. And maybe that was why he was falling into this so eagerly, or maybe that was just the excuse he was using to justify how bad he wanted this.

Yeah, Eddie made up his mind. If he was gonna bite the bullet, he was gonna fucking _bite_ it.

“V, can you just, fuck me—no, sorry, I meant, _fuck,_ just do what you want, please? Can you—can you take over for me?” There was some sort of ripping noise accompanying Venom’s growl as they materialized, the same torso leaning their full form over him.

**“You want that, Eddie? Want us to finish you off?”**

“Oh fuck, hell yes, I would uh—really fucking like that, yeah.” When a finger landed over his lips he kissed on instinct, and the finger turned into a tendril that snaked briefly inside his mouth before pulling back out. He was pretty sure the way he moaned after shook the walls of the building.

 **“Hands off then.”** Eddie didn’t get a moment to comply. His hands were suddenly locked straight at his sides and he could only whimper and buck his hips into the air in response, not cognizant of the way his dick was inside the symbiote’s form. The loss of sensation was maddening.

 **“Stop moving, too.”** Venom paused and leaned over him, the same grin morphing over their features. **“Be good, Eddie.”**

Eddie clamped his mouth shut and nodded frantically, eyes wild. He wouldn’t move a fucking muscle if it meant getting his dick touched again, right fucking now, he needed it _jesus_ did he need—

“—Ah, _fuck,_ V that’s, oh my god.” Something, something started moving around his dick, it was the world’s greatest fleshlight and Eddie had no idea what they were doing because his view was being very thoroughly blocked by a shining mass of black muscle. It pulsated, covering all of him and keeping his balls stretched taught as it did. Eddie managed only to keen, felt his eyes briefly roll upwards before tendrils cupping his chin brought him back. They danced dangerously near his mouth and some desperate part of his brain tried to kiss at them.

 **“Ask us to make you come, Eddie.”** They paused, and if he wasn’t mistaken it was out of some form of embarrassment. **“And—call us what you did earlier.”**

“What, what did I— _shit.”_ It was kind of hard to think while it felt like there were about 50 tongues worshipping his dick all at once. “Did I—love? I called you love?”

The way the entire form in front of him shuddered at the word gave him his answer.

“Yes, fuck, love, _please_ make me come I—it’s been so long I fucking _need_ it V, love, I need it, I’m _aching—”_

If Eddie could have thought about anything besides the words coming out of his mouth, he would have noticed the way something moved inside of him, pressing briefly behind his balls while another stroked across his prostate. That was a lot more thought than he could manage right about then, however. All he knew what that as he begged something changed, whatever was over his dick tightened _just_ right and squeezed his balls at the same time and suddenly, suddenly, he was coming.

Eddie screamed—full out fucking screamed.

It was cut off a moment later, black flooded over his lips and he squeezed his eyes shut and let his hips jerk as he came instead. There was black coating his entire body but still, all he could see was white for what felt like minutes. It took a good amount of time after for him to come to, and when he finally looked down at himself it seemed like the symbiote still hadn’t managed that bit.

“V–Venom? You alive, man?” The words were hoarse, but full of concern: There were pools of black matter coating his bare skin (skin that was also markedly void of cum), completely stagnant for a long moment before all absorbing into him at once. He shuddered at the feeling.

 **Eddie.** Oh? He flinched at his name; V sounded angry.

“Oh, uh, yeah?” _Did I fuck it up did I fuck it up did I_ —

 ** _—Why_** **did we not do that earlier?!** _Christ._ Eddie grinned and spread his limbs out on the mattress, basking in what he could now appreciate as postcoital bliss.

“Fuck, don’t ask me. I didn’t know you even knew what sex was.”

 **Of course we did.** They paused, and seemed struck with an idea a moment later. **So that** **_was_ ** **sex?**

Shit, yeah. He was pretty sure he could deny it all he wanted to, but the facts wouldn’t change. “I, uh—I think so bud. Is that okay?”

**It is fantastic. We want to do it again.**

“I’m, uhm.” Eddie coughed. “You got me pretty wrung out right now. Later, if that’s...good?” He got an affirmative, and managed to reach and get his pants back on. “Let’s just, maybe, sleep for right now. Gotta work tomorrow, y’know.”

A small amount of black landed briefly on his lips, which he took as agreement as well. And it wasn’t a lie. Eddie was pretty sure he’d lost every ounce of energy he had with his cum, the same cum that had made the miraculous disappearance—which was also something he wasn’t ready to delve into just yet.

“Night, love.” He managed to kiss the symbiote before they darted back inside of him, their satisfaction rumbling deep inside his chest.

**Goodnight, Eddie.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter here to hopefully make up for the fact that I broke my laptop and am gonna be without it for about a week. I'm aiming to whip out my old one and get it working again so I can write in the meantime, but we'll see if that actually works—otherwise I'll write on my phone, but it'll be slow. So expect more than the usual two days between chapters, however when chapter 8 does come out expect it to be a doozy.  
> Side note, thank you all so much for the support on this, my heart beats stronger every day! 💕


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Crest, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 1 of a 2-part update; if this fic was a TV show, imagine this as a 2-part season finale, maybe? No warnings for this first part beside Eddie having an anxiety disorder, but watch out in part 2.

They never really got a chance to discuss that night, and that was honestly how Eddie would have wanted it if he’d had the choice. Though what he really would have preferred was, y’know, having a choice to begin with—because the shit that stopped them from getting to talk was definitely less than ideal. He would even say it was somewhere on the _my life is destroyed (again)_ level of shit you don’t want to happen.

The way it started was mundane, at least. Eddie hadn’t set an alarm when he passed out, and woke up with the worst adrenaline rush once he realized what time it was because _fuck,_ he had to work he couldn’t fuck this up he had to get his ass there _now_ he was gonna be opening the store late, and god knows Joe was watching.

Eddie ended up launching himself out of bed, stumbling to the sink as he stripped his pants off and grabbed his clothes from yesterday which he figured were clean e-fucking-nough. He splashed his face and wet down his hair and swigged some mouthwash and, fuck right, grabbed his keys and then he was gone.

So the store ended up being opened at 10:12 that day, which wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but Eddie could hear Joe’s dissatisfied grunt ringing in his ear. He apologized, _profusely_ , to the security cameras as he turned on the lights and flipped their open sign, fingers still shaking with the same adrenaline rush that had propelled him from bed roughly ten minutes ago.

Even once Eddie was settled behind the front desk his anxiety continued to grow. It was a side effect of waking up in a cold, panicked sweat, probably—either way, he sat there stewing about the fact that he was likely already going to lose his job wasn’t he and _fuck_ that sucked and he sucked and he’d _just_ got his shit figured out, and it just kept building until Venom cut him off with a growl.

**Eddie. Stop. It is fine.**

“I know, like he probably won’t say anything, right? He hasn’t said anything about _us_ even though I know he can see it so I guess he can probably let shit go, I’m just worried that—“

**_—Eddie._ **Shit, yeah, they were right. Eddie sighed with the most soulful gravitas he could manage, and dropped his head onto the counter for a quick chill out.

It was cold against his forehead, and the dark of his fat head blocking any light was nice, even if the counter smelled aggressively like dirty laminate to his currently–smashed nose.

He felt perspiration build against his face as he spoke, but was still determined not to move. “Really crazy few days. Kinda has me wigged out. Stressed.”

**We know, can taste it. Told you, we have no obligations to them.**

“I know, man, I know. But I’m gonna try and help anyways.” The sorts of images swarming his head were unwelcome. Eddie was very specifically trying _not_ to think about that girl, and he’d had a successful twelve hours, but apparently that streak was about to come to an end. He let his eyes close as he took another breath. “Alright. It’s okay.”

**It is okay.** They seemed to think for a moment, and Eddie could fucking _feel_ them grin. **And if the old man has a problem with 10:12 we will—**

“—We will do _nothing,_ V, you hear me? We need this job. Jesus, man.” Eddie leaned back and scrubbed his face. It was hard to get your alien to chill out about killing people sometimes, though maybe it was made worse by the fact that Eddie kind of encouraged them.

**Accusing us of wanting to kill him, Eddie? That’s low. We just meant...Scare him a bit.**

“Venom...”

Their reply was forceful. **Last night was far more important than a job. You know we can take care of you, of** **_us_ ** **.**

_Shit._ Eddie remembered, _that_ , yeah. He stumbled over some sort of witty reply, the blood in his cheeks making it a bit more difficult to think. “Didn’t we, uh, go over that already, bud? I really don’t want to—”

The door rang and Eddie’s head snapped up. In a split moment there was a welcoming smile spread across his lips, and he stepped forward to help them out—the man ruefully presented Eddie with a very broken laptop and asked, _begged_ him to fix it. The symbiote, meanwhile, had for some reason gone tense.

“Okay, so uh.” Eddie laughed, trying to make his tone apologetic. “I don’t know how to, so I’ll have to see if the owner is able. I’m sorry, man.” He ran his hand over the laptop briefly, thinking. “I can take your info and let him know you asked, though I think this...might be a bit too far gone. No offense.”

The man groaned, but it was playful. “No worries, I can drop by. You know when he’ll be in?”

“Tomorrow, yeah, all day.”

“Cool, thanks man—mind if I look around a bit in the meantime?” Eddie waved him on, and settled back in his spot at the front. He could feel the symbiote doing... _something_ , as the man moved around the store, and had to slap the back of his neck when he felt what he was positive had been a mouth forming there. A moment later and they were screaming in his head.

**_EDDIE!_ ** **He smells like the hotel, Eddie! That’s what he smells like! Smells the same as the man in the lobby!**

For a moment he couldn’t think over how loud they were yelling—all his focus was going towards not slamming his head into the wall. And then when V calmed down enough that he could actually make out what they were saying, his heart sank all the way to his ankles.

_Are you sure? That’s really, really fucking bad if you’re right._

**Positive, Eddie, he—**

“—Thanks, I’ll see you around.” The bells rang again as the man slipped out, and the way they bounced against the door seemed louder than he’d ever heard it.

Eddie lasted about ten seconds, just standing and watching with his chest heaving, before grabbing up his keys and racing out the door after him.

“Which way?”

**Left, go fast. There’s a car.** Eddie tried, but it apparently wasn’t fast enough, and the symbiote took over briefly—they covered everything but his head in a small layer of black that was just enough to give him an edge. But when he caught sight of the man, it was to see him walking without any rush down the sidewalk. Eddie skidded to a stop, and for a moment was left wondering they’d made a mistake following him.

That was, obviously, until he tossed the laptop into the trash and climbed into the passenger side of a waiting gray Jetta. It took off a moment later.

“Shit, _shit_ , V, how fast can you get us to the bike?” As he said it, already turning to where he’d parked, his phone started buzzing in his pocket.

Obviously, it was Joe. _Fuck me._

Eddie was frozen for a moment, staring at his phone and then to the car that was already almost out of sight and back to his phone, and shit, this was a fucking mess. He couldn’t just let them go again, could he?

_Fuck_ , he had to—because he couldn’t be useful to anyone without a job backing him up.

**Answer it, Eddie.**

He clenched his jaw and made up his mind, turning back to the store before complying.

“Brock. Wanna explain what’s goin’ on with you today? Why my store‘s both unlocked and empty?”

“Yes sir, uh, the customer that’d been in, I was gonna take his info before he left but didn’t get a chance, and realized after he was gone. I’m going back inside right now.” There was a long pause, and Eddie could hear Joe taking a deep breath. He had to give it to the man, he could see through bullshit a mile away.

“You pull somethin’ like that again, you better understand this won’t work out. Got it?”

Yeah. He got it. Eddie’s steps slowed as he made his way to the front of the desk, leaning up against it to keep himself steady.

“Hey, uh, Joe? I might be...” He might be what? Might be involved with a human trafficking ring? Might have led them straight to his place of employment? Yeah, no, Eddie couldn’t tell him if he wanted to keep his job. Joe was safer if he knew nothing, anyways. “Might be having an off day, or uh, week? Uhm. It won’t happen again.”

“You got somethin’ goin’ on, you need to leave it at home.” Joe paused. “I have a few things to drop off, I’ll open the store tomorrow, and stay just the morning. You come in at 12, then you can have the rest of the week off if you need it.”

Somewhere under cold panic he felt relief, though it was hard to register it. “Shit, yeah—thank you. That’s a huge help. I only need a couple of days, really.”

“It’s fine. I’ll see you tomorrow, Eddie.”

“Yeah—yeah, I’ll see you then.” He hung up and set his phone down on the counter.

**Eddie? What are you...** Eddie took a deep breath, held it. The way it filled his chest up was satisfying for a moment, making him ache, before he let it out.

_“FUCK!”_ He almost kicked the desk, but managed to stop himself just in time and settled with trying to rip his hair out instead. Venom let him tug for about five seconds before they untangled the hair from his fingers and forced his arms down to his sides.

**That’s not helping.** By this point in their relationship, Eddie had learned it was pointless to struggle against the symbiote’s hold. Instead he just let them walk him back to his chair behind the counter.

**Sit down.** He obeyed. **Good, Eddie. Now think. We did not need to follow that car.**

“I don’t want to—“

**—We are going to the hotel tonight. They can’t hide from us.**

“They keep getting away.”

**We will find them.** Eddie went limp, just for a moment, and V relented their hold to let him lean back down over the counter. He laid for a moment, eyes closed, when he felt something against his forehead.

He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it well enough to know that the tendril the symbiote made had something approximating lips, and was kissing him. They made the motion again, and Eddie’s own lips turned up at the corners.

“Thank you, love.” Eddie realized, if only he could stop wrecking his own shit every time he blinked, that maybe he could be happy like this. Living like this. The realization helped.

 

The wait until they could go to the hotel was torture, but finally, _finally_ Eddie found himself walking through the door.

“Hey, I need a room for the night.” The man behind the counter—an unfamiliar face—just grunted, and gestured for Eddie to wait. He was in the middle of a very important magazine, apparently.

**What a moron. Tell him to stop fucking around.** Eddie smirked and ducked his head, trying not to laugh. _Profanity, V, jesus._

He did, however, rap his fingers on the counter and try again. “I’m workin’ a tight schedule here, man, gonna need that magazine to wait.” There was another moment of silence before finally he sat back, and looked up at Eddie through furrowed brows.

“What kinda room are you wantin’? Got a few open—“

“—I have a preference for room 318, personally.” The man hesitated, blinked once, before he nodded and grunted again, reaching behind himself and grabbing a keycard out of a drawer that he slid to Eddie. He was already opening the magazine back up as he spoke.

“Elevator’s down, use the stairs. Make sure you give the card back when you’re done, you thinkin’ a few hours or what?”

Eddie smiled and shrugged. “Hard day, maybe more maybe less. Thanks man.” He peeled the card off the counter and gave it a small wave as he turned to the stairs.

**That was easy.**

“Maybe too easy, though they _are_ running a business. Runs on efficiency, right?” He was climbing the steps two at a time. “Dunno, bud. I’ve got you if anything goes wrong, yeah?”

**Yes, Eddie. Always have us.**

“Then it’s all good.” He slid the keycard through the door, and stepped inside.

Eddie let the door close behind him before turning on the lights. It took him a second to take it all in—and really, _just_ a second. There was a generic hotel bed, two night tables, and some standing lamps. He could tell the room used to have a dresser or a chair or something, the carpet showed other furniture that’d been removed. The only other addition in the room was the thick curtain hanging over the window, blocking out all the light from the outside.

Oh, yeah, and the other curtain that was hanging over a massive hole in the wall.

The drywall stopped just short of the curtain, changing to wood paneling that Eddie figured turned to brick and then gaping nothingness underneath. What he wasn’t sure of was what it looked like on the other side.

He didn’t hear any voices or noises, though, so it had to be blocked off somewhere. Eddie flattened himself against the wall next to the curtain, and reached out to slowly, _slowly_ look underneath.

_Idiot._ It was fine. While the Audric had apparently settled with an actual hole on their side, the apartment it led to had a real ass door installed, pressed up against the hole in some sort of ill-fitting collage. It was locked when Eddie tried the handle, but it felt like a deadbolt, and even though Eddie could pick a lock in a pinch it might not be necessary.

“Hey bud? I don’t mean to assume, but just wondering if you could slide in there and get this open.” A tendril from his wrist appeared, seemed to nod at him before slipping between the doorframe—a click, and it was unlocked a moment later. He nodded his thanks, and pressed an ear against the door.

The only thing he could hear remained dead silence, which was odd. He _knew_ it was odd, had the conscious thought of “this is a bad idea”, and pushed the door open anyways.

But all it revealed was an apartment that was...empty. And not empty like the hotel room was empty: this was fucking _empty_. Some dime bags on the floor, some stains on the walls, two chairs stacked in the corner. The air smelled like a mixture of bodily fluids and a neighbor apparently burning their food next door. But all in all, empty.

It took Eddie a moment to figure out what had happened before he got here. He stepped through the threshold, spun around slowly. Two other identical doors lined the wall to the hotel, all locked like his had been. This had to be the right place: there was no other way to explain that.

His heart was beating so loud in his ears that he could barely think.

“I don’t...”

**Eddie.**

“Did they… We. Missed them. Again. V, we—we fucking. We missed them. Oh my god. Oh my _god.”_

He took a step and stumbled, ended up on his hands and knees with a hanging head. He should have...gotten up, he should get up but he. Fuck. He couldn’t breathe.

He’d let them get away, again. He wasn’t careful enough and they were fucking _here,_ they were, they were here yesterday and he’d been careless and now they were gone. _Oh god._ He could still hear her screaming.

**Eddie.**

“Don’t—don’t Eddie me right now, please. I know we aren’t, aren’t obligated but V you saw her, you _saw_ her just like I saw her, I can’t just. Fuck.” His voice was cracking, and he wanted to, christ, jump out one of those windows like nothing else right now, and not listen to the symbiote, but they pressed on.

**_Eddie._ ** **Listen to us! There’s something going on—**

“—Yeah, no shit!”

**No! There’s a fire!** There, what? That stopped his wallowing, anxiety suddenly turning cold in his veins. And yeah, now that they mentioned it Eddie realized he could still smell something burning. _Where?_

**Not this room, it’s—**

They didn’t get to finish.

Pain erupted in Eddie’s head, his chest, his—everywhere, it caught him so off guard that he collapsed face first onto the grime of the floor, body spasming without his consent. Somewhere in the back of his mind Eddie realized a fire alarm was going off, but it was impossible to actually hear over the symbiote’s screaming.

Eddie could feel them trying to form over his skin, to get them up and out of the room. The result, however, was just an amorphous mass of black tendrils spilling in and out of his body without rhyme or reason. It was on him, then. His hands flew up over his ears, body still shaking as he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to stand.

It took him three tries to get onto his fucking hands and knees, and he managed to drag himself back into the hotel room with a grunt. Yanking the door shut behind him cut off the sound well enough that the pain stopped, and he could breathe again.

He promptly collapsed back onto his face, moaning into the floor. His voice, when he finally spoke, was about four octaves higher than he’d prefer.

“Oh _god.”_ A cough briefly wracked his body, one that threatened to expel Venom before he got himself back under control. “That fucking sucked.” There was a pause, and when the symbiote spoke it was far too quiet.

**Hurts.**

“Shit, bud, I’m—I’m really, _really_ sorry. I’m sorry.” Eddie rolled onto his back, rubbing a hand slowly over his own chest with eyes squeezed shut. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Eddie wondered if that was intentional—if it’d been planned. But he didn’t want to face the implications of that right then. “Let me. Take us home. Okay?”

**Okay, Eddie.** They sounded so uncharacteristically fragile that his breath went ragged, for a moment, before he pulled himself up at least up onto his ass.

“You really don’t—don’t think we’re obligated to help?” Eddie felt their head shake as if it was his own. “Okay. _Okay._ We can, think this over for a few days. Maybe it’s. Maybe Rita was right.” Maybe he could convince himself that it was the right thing to do, was what he actually meant. The right thing to keep himself and Venom safe, to keep Joe and Rita safe—everyone except those being trafficked.

He could send in tips to the police, even if Rita had said it wouldn’t help. And maybe let that be the extent of it; he certainly wasn’t fucking getting anywhere on his own.

Eddie had been forced to make a choice with the Life Foundation, and he’d made the wrong one. He’d thought the right choice this time around was following through to the end.

But he wasn’t so sure anymore.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Crest, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of a 2-part update (make sure you've read the prior chapter before this one). Warnings for violence.

**We are feeling better, today.**

“Hm? Good, bud. I’m glad, you had me worried.” Eddie’s hand went instinctively to his chest as he walked, offering encouragement.

V had been quiet for some time the night before, as if the sound of the alarm had somehow still been reverberating in Eddie’s body. That, or they’d just gotten freaked out by it all—he knew they had a hard time with the concept of not always being able to protect him. It was something they’d have to work on, for sure, because it was pretty damn important that they understand this was a partnership. But they’d both get there with time.

Now, however, they were headed to work. And at this point Eddie could appreciate just how bad the night before had been. Once they got home, after a prolonged meltdown, he had made the decision that they’d stop pursuing the ring for the time being—because one, the risk of collateral damage was getting higher than he’d prefer, especially now faced with the fact that they might know about V, and two, he had no fucking leads to follow at this point anyways. But in the light of day he still had to convince himself it was necessary.

**Not** **_necessary._ ** **But we are not obligated to do anything that we do not want to, told you already. Do you** **_want_ ** **to keep following them, Eddie?**

“Not sure, man, ‘m not sure. We’ll just wait on it, see if anything comes up and decide then, ‘kay?” His hand moved to his mouth of its own volition, and Eddie let a small smile flash as he hummed his consent, kissing the small circle of black that appeared over his thumb. They agreed to the plan, apparently.

The plan obviously blew up.

Eddie was a bitch for thinking anything could just, y’know, be okay for once. He realized it later—that he should have seen this coming. And christ, thinking about it still made him sick, with guilt or something else that he couldn’t put a name to. Felt like shit, whatever it was.

They were on Mission Street, Joe’s store barely visible up ahead, when Venom locked Eddie’s knees. Tendrils reached to the ground to support him as he almost toppled, shoved him back up and let go of his legs—his feet felt like they were cemented to the ground instead.

After their number of miscommunications, Eddie realized it was a warning. “What’s going on?”

**Blood. Can you taste it?** His senses changed before he was ready for it, putting him in the body of the symbiote and leaving him with his mouth open and slightly-too-long tongue tasting the air outside. Off putting as hell, but it worked.

“Shit, yeah, where is it...Oh. Oh no.” Obvious.  _ Fuck. _

Eddie had apparently used up all the panic and adrenaline his body could muster in a twenty-four hour span, because instead of losing it he just. Stood in the street, unmoving. Venom had let go of his feet, but the sensation of being stuck in cement didn’t change.

“Can you tell whose blood it is?”

**No.**

“So it could be...”

**Yes.**

Eddie swallowed, nodding his head. “Okay.” Okay. He ran the rest of the way to the store, feeling like he was watching himself from a third person’s perspective. If it was possible for ratty sneakers to echo on concrete, he was sure that they had, because that’s how he heard it.

He stopped again outside the door, as if it could shield him. Inside the monitors were blank, but Joe’s neon “open” sign was flashing on and off, and the lights were on. So why was the front desk empty?

It was rhetorical—he was pretty sure he already knew why.

**Eddie. Do you...want us to go first? Look for you?** Eddie shook his head, swallowed again as he pushed the doors open. He could handle it. They were so close at that point that, even without V’s senses, he could taste it too. Bracing himself, he took another step, and peered around the back of the desk.

It really was like something out of a movie, which didn’t really help the whole out of body experience he felt like he was currently having. The first thing he saw was a hand, palm up and long brown fingers curled. He almost balked, but instead rounded the corner with his eyes closed so that when he opened them he was forced to take everything in at once.

Joe was there, yeah. Lying in a puddle of blood that seemed to have pooled out of a hole in his chest. It was vibrant against his white button up, in sharp contrast to the way it only tinted his skin a dark burgundy. Only took that one look for Eddie to understand that he was thoroughly dead.

But. He fell to his knees and pressed a hand over the hole in his chest anyways, scrambling to feel for a pulse even though the blood under him was already cold.

“Venom. I died—you brought me back. Can you do that now?”

**Your brain was not dead yet. His is. It has been an hour.** Fuck. Okay, he.  _ Fuck. _

“Are you—are you sure, are you really,  _ really _ sure, because if there’s a chance we need to. We need...” He blinked, and it was Maria under him. Blinked again, and it was Joe. Eddie shook his head, trying to clear it, but already felt Venom’s guilt when they realized.

**Sorry, Eddie.** The hands over Joe’s chest were suddenly coated in black, leaking out of Eddie and adding to the ache in his chest as the symbiote disappeared inside the man. He waited for a moment, breath stuck in his throat. It was dead silent.

Then with a terrible ripping sound Venom seemed to be flung out of Joe’s body, landing against Eddie’s chest and absorbing inside of him a second later. If they could have been out of breath, this is what it would have felt like.

**Can’t fix it, can’t help. Eddie, we are sorry.**

_ Okay. Thank you for trying. _

He still only sat on the ground, the hands pressed over Joe’s chest slowly letting go. So he was gone, then. And it was his fault.

**Eddie…** They didn’t continue; it was the truth. If V protested, he wasn’t listening. And he knew his chest was heaving and breath was ragged, but he didn’t quite feel that, either. His thoughts were kinda stuck on. What he’d done. 

The world, for a few long, terrible minutes, consisted only of Eddie kneeling over Joe, eyes looking somewhere in the distance like they couldn’t handle what he was seeing. Through the silence, his mind was racing—and it took him awhile, but eventually something like steel settled over his body. Eddie stood, slowly wiped his hands off on his shirt and turned from Joe. 

It was too late to fix things, but maybe he could still make it right.

“Alright. Thank you, Joe, for being so damn cautious.”  _ Even if I managed to fuck you over anyways.  _ Eddie tossed his bag onto the counter, pulled out his laptop to get into the cloud folder Joe had shared with him. 

The monitors had been blank: Looking around, Eddie could see that all but one of the security camera lights were on.  _ Smart bastard. _ He hadn’t even realized until just now that one of the cameras wasn’t being displayed to the monitors around the store. That was the camera whose files he went to, and obviously Joe had it set up to save a copy of the footage every other hour.

Eddie’s mouth had a sour taste as he opened the most recent file. For all Joe was careful, all it took was one dumb fuck to end it for him.

**You said we were going to make it right, Eddie.**

“Yeah, bud.” His voice came out as a hoarse whisper. “If we can.” He held his breath as we went through the recording, stopping it once he saw someone approaching at the 34 minute mark. It took a lot of resolve to actually hit play. But he had to see, had to know who it was and what they wanted if he was going to find them. 

Except once he did, he had to pause it all over again. He couldn’t figure out what he was seeing—

**That looks like…**

“Yeah. It...it does.” 

—Because what he was seeing was himself.

Not his face; that was covered with a gray balaclava. But the man in the video was wearing a shirt with the sleeves pushed up, and his forearms were. They were Eddie’s. 

No, it wasn’t exact; but close enough that anyone who wasn’t him would certainly fucking think so. His left arm showed ravens and a skull, and the placement wasn’t quite right but it was there, the right arm covered in a three inch thick layer of bracelets that weren’t his own, he’d never seen them before, but again, who would know the difference but him?

The icing on the fucking cake was the shoes, those  _ were _ the same as his, though he still looked down at his own feet as if to confirm. But he could tell from the grainy footage that they were new, far too new to be anything he owned. 

So it wasn’t him, but the details were close enough that he wasn’t sure he could convince anyone else of that fact. He sat there staring at the screen for a long moment, brain moving moronically slow in realizing what they’d done.

They... Weren’t going to kill him, because who would be the suspect if they did? But framing him in someone else’s death, they could. Could, what, get him off their asses for good? Yeah. And leave the public none the wiser in the process.

“Oh, Christ…” He felt sick. Eddie didn’t know Joe’s login, couldn’t delete any files from his own. And Joe—

“He’d. He’d have known it wasn’t me, right V? He was smart, he didn’t...” Eddie tried to swallow. “He had to have known it wasn’t me.” The fact that it was possible. The last thought Joe had was that, that Eddie had shot him? Made him want to. God. Oh,  _ god. _

**He was smart, Eddie. If the man spoke to him at any point, he would have known.** Right. RIght, they were right. He braced himself and clicked play, needing to see now more than ever how it’d panned out.

The cameras didn’t have sound, but it was clear that the man had spoken. He’d walked in, hoodie covering his head until he flipped it back to reveal his covered face and a gun in his hand. Pointed it at Joe, said something and nodded his head at the monitors. Joe didn’t move from behind the counter, didn’t react besides pulling out his laptop. The monitors flicked off a few seconds later.

Did Joe know he was about to die? He didn’t seem to get a warning—Eddie flinched as the man’s arm recoiled and Joe stumbled backwards, a hand to his chest. Blood had only just began spilling out as he collapsed.

Even though the man had begun moving to do something else in the store Eddie paused it there, had to stop. His entire body was shaking, and he felt like he was going to puke. And maybe he wasn’t breathing, or was breathing far too quickly, he couldn’t tell. A voice somewhere inside of him, not V’s, was demanding he not vomit so he didn’t incriminate himself even further. It was hard not too, though, and took some influence from the symbiote to manage it.

**Don’t need to watch it all right now, Eddie.**

“I…” He didn’t get to finish the thought, but it didn’t matter. The thought didn’t go anywhere anyways.

Eddie was more than a little frozen as the bells on the door chimed. A group of girls walked in, talking amongst themselves, and for some reason he could only stand in place and stare like a deer in headlights.

It didn’t take long for them to notice him, or the blood on his shirt, or the fact that someone was dead on the ground behind him. When they did they seemed as frozen as he was, words dying on opened lips as they stared. And suddenly, without so much as a scream, they collectively turned and bolted out the door.

“Fuck.” 

That was. Not good. That was bad, actually. Took the situation out of his own hands, if it’d ever been there to begin with.

**Need to go, Eddie. Need to go now.**

Yeah, that sounded about right. He managed to get his ass moving, downloaded the video file and then shoved his laptop back into his bag. One last look at Joe, a small apology whispered on his lips, and then he was bolting out of the store himself.

Eddie wasn’t looking for anyone who might be watching him, even now. But this time it wasn’t naivety—it was acknowledgement of the fact that he was too thoroughly fucked for it to even matter. 

Instead, he just ran.

“Remind me why the hell we decided to walk today.” It came out as an out-of-breath huff more than as actual words, and earned a grunt from the symbiote before they took over. With them staying under his clothes again, he hoped he only looked like some sort of parkour fanatic as he leapt his way back to his building.

Probably not; parkour fanatics didn’t usually have oily black muscles bulging out from under their jacket. But it was fast—Eddie was dropped at the entrance only a minute later, out of breath just as much as Venom was. He muttered a thanks as he hustled inside.

There wasn’t a plan to speak of, he had fucking nothing. Just pounded his way up the stairs, figuring he’d get to his room, and, what? Fuck, he wasn’t good at this sort of shit. Really, his body was moving before his brain really had any input on the matter.

That’s why it was a surprise when Eddie skidded to a stop, but not at his own door. It took him a moment to realize—it was Rita’s.

He stood, panting, for a long moment. He shouldn’t...shouldn’t involve her, right? His hand came up to knock, and he lowered it, started to raise it again and decided against it.  _ Make up your mind, Brock. Jesus. _

Making up his mind meant acknowledging he needed to stop leaving a trail of wreckage everywhere he went. Leave her out of it. He’d only just managed to turn himself around and start to his own room when the door swung open.

“Eddie?”  _ Oh, fuck me. _

It was tempting, it really was, but he’d learned his lesson. And so he didn’t turn around, especially didn’t want her to see that he was covered in blood again—considering this time it was the blood of someone that did not deserve to die, that he didn’t  _ want _ to die. Instead Eddie scowled at himself, wrapped his arms across his chest and kept walking. 

“Don’t ignore me.” And that was—great, okay. That was great. He stopped, only halfway down the hall and still facing away from her.

He had to clear his throat a few times before he actually managed to speak. “Now is...a bad time.”

“So why were you lingering outside my door? If you didn’t want me to know, you could have been quieter about it.” He didn’t answer, and heard her sigh. “Turn around.”

_ Yeah, okay.  _ Eddie pulled his jacket tight around his shirt, and spun with a grimace. The way he probably looked right now—she visibly paled at the sight.

“Are you hurt?” Again, he only shook his head, not trusting himself to not spill his guts out. “Is this—” Rita seemed to realize, and frowned. “I warned you. Fuck, Eddie, I warned you.”

The laugh that left his lips was shrill. “Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m sorry.” He squeezed his arms tighter, as if it could help. “Do you—uhm. Keep your door locked, and. Stay safe.” She waited for something more, but all Eddie offered was a nod in the direction of her door.

It was slamming shut behind her a moment later, and Eddie heard the lock click. Good, that was good. He was certain that she could take care of herself, in the least. Especially since she’d been graced with a heads up.

As soon as they were inside their own apartment Venom was spilling out of him, a snake-like head manifesting over his shoulder. Another tendril covered his chest, pressed down over Eddie’s heart as if they were steadying it, steadying him.

As much as it helped, he still didn’t even make it to the mattress. Just crumpled to the ground in front of his door. He figured it was time to get used to being on his hands and knees, as often as he found himself there at this point. The symbiote formed again, this time from behind him, and rubbed over his shoulders.

**“Eddie.”**

“What is it, love?” His voice was already starting to crack, and he wiped his arm aggressively over his eyes.

**“It is okay.”** Eddie shook his head, pressed his forehead to the floor for a moment.  **“It is, Eddie.”**

“How can you—how can you fucking expect me to, to believe that right now, man? How can you even, even say that?”

**“We are together. We will figure it out.”**

Eddie tried to speak, but it came out as a sob. His resolve had broken.  _ I have no idea how to figure this one out. _

**“We,** **_we_ ** **will. It doesn’t only have to be you.”** Fuck. His eyes were filling with tears faster than he could scrub them away, and it only just struck him that maybe V understood this was a partnership better than he did. Better than he ever could.

“I’m sorry that…” His voice cracked again, and christ, he was a mess. The past week was hitting him hard, and he cursed as his body shook. Made talking difficult, to say the least, and when he tried again it came out more like a whimper. “I’m sorry you picked such a fuck up.”

**“You think we did not know that when we first bonded, Eddie?”** They—what, really? He looked back over his shoulder, eyes wide even though he couldn’t really see through them.  **“Who else could make** **_us?_ ** **You are the only one we want to be with. Nothing could happen to change that.”**

So who knew the big black goo was a fucking sap? Eddie laughed, for real that time, as tears slid down his cheeks. 

“That’s...that’s really fucking nice, man.” He sat back on his heels, wiping over his face and humming in appreciation as Venom extended a tendril to do it for him. They were a lot softer than his jacket, and he left himself relax into the touch. It was nice, for a moment, even if it wouldn’t last.

They ended up getting a 30 second respite, which in all honesty was longer than they’d had for the entire past week. Eddie was still on the floor when V suddenly tensed, slamming back inside him.

**Do** **_not_ ** **open up.**

“What are you—”

“—Police! Open up!” Oh. Shit, yeah. Do not open was fucking right.

So he had about ten seconds to get the fuck out of there, apparently. Eddie scrambled to his feet, grabbing clothes and his laptop and a blanket and whatever the hell he could get his hands on. He was still shoving them all into his duffel bag as he tried to work the window open—V huffed, shot out a tendril that shattered it instead.

Still, he hesitated.  _ You think there’s any chance at convincing them I didn’t kill Joe? _

**No chance in hell.** Yeah, that’s what he thought too.

Eddie leapt out the window just as the apartment’s door was busted open. The police were too late—he was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I've been sitting on this update for awhile...really excited to hear people's reactions to this one :-) Comments _literally_ give me life. Meanwhile the next chapter is already on the way, so no worries there.


	10. Chapter 10

“Have you heard from Eddie at all?” 

“Hm?” Dan was, as always, endearing. Anne couldn’t help but smile at the man, who’d barely managed the reply through a mouthful of chana masala. He forced the food down his throat as she continued.

“Eddie, Eddie—have you heard anything from him since he came to get his bike?” Dan seemed to think, shrugged, and then shoved another bite into his mouth that he was again determined to talk through.

“Mn, no, we gonna—” He swallowed, “—have him over for dinner again? I had a good time. Didn’t he?”

“I mean, I assume he did. But he hasn’t replied to any messages since then.”

She realized that he wasn’t picking up on her anxiety when he shrugged again. It was a product of the fact that she knew the kind of shit Eddie got himself into a bit more intimately than him, though that wasn’t to say Dan hadn’t borne witness to some of it. And really, missing a few texts and an email—that Eddie himself had asked her to send—wouldn’t have been that worrying if it was anyone else, so she couldn’t blame him.

But after her and Eddie’s second 2 AM trip to the hospital for a gunshot wound in their relationship (“I’m fine, it barely grazed me,” he’d argued while his calf poured blood all over her kitchen floor), Anne had come to intimately understand the nature of his...tendencies. She understood them in a way that meant finding out something like, oh, say the that fact that he had previously been housing an alien parasite, were barely surprising.

That understanding also meant that if Eddie was doing “well”, which it had seemed like he was, she knew there was no telling what he’d convince himself he was able to handle. Getting arrested after apparently attacking someone was case-in-point—so yes, she worried.

By then Dan must have seen her face, because he set down his fork and reached for her hand. “Probably just busy, you remember he had a new job?”

Bless him, he was trying to help. She stroked over his thumb thoughtfully, struck for a moment with the realization of how much she loved this man. And eventually Anne hummed and nodded, grabbing for the naan.

Yes, it was possible Dan was right. In fact she _wanted_ him to be right. It was just more concerning when the man had something to lose—because he’d always manage to lose it.

But she only added some more food to her own plate, figuring if something was going on that Eddie would reach out to her eventually. This was the thought she’d naively settled on, later, when they both sat down and flipped on the news for the evening.

Anne had to admit, when she’d been worried, it wasn’t that he’d been involved in something like _this._

They’d been talking over the droning of the evening’s other reports—but her and Dan’s heads both shot up at Eddie’s name.

_“...Arrest warrant has been issued against prior reporter Edward Brock, issued in connection with the robbery of a Mission District electronics store and murder of its owner...”_

“That’s—“ 

“—Yeah. _Damnit,_ Eddie.” Anne was up and grabbing her keys before the newscaster had even finished.

_“...Still at large, and is currently charged with felony murder and armed robbery. Witnesses discovered Ellis’s body in his store Tuesday afternoon, and reported that Brock...”_

“Wait, wait, Anne—where are you going?” Dan stood up with her, following behind as she grabbed a jacket. When she turned to face him he looked...nervous, above anything else. It took Anne a moment to realize why. “What if he...y’know?”

“Oh, Dan.” She cupped his cheek, stroked her thumb along his jaw before remembering that she was currently mid-adrenaline rush, damnit, she didn’t have time for that. “He won’t. I’m going to his apartment—he won’t be there, but it’s worth a shot just to figure out what’s going on.” Eddie, the bastard, still managed to have her coming after him in the middle of the night. And somehow this time was worse than the man-eating alien thing.

But by the look Dan gave he wasn’t convinced, so she pressed on in encouragement. “Stay here, okay babe? In case he turns up, though I’d hope he was smart enough not to do that either.” _Though we all know “Eddie” and “doing something smart” are things you’d be hard pressed to find together._ He finally assented, squeezing her hand tight and waving her to the door.

“Be careful, please. Keep me updated?” She nodded, lingering to bask in Dan’s gentleness just a moment longer before starting down the stairs outside.

_“...Thus far been able to avoid arrest, and anyone with information on his whereabouts has been asked to contact the SFPD immediately...”_

  


She’d called Eddie four times by the time she actually pulled up in front of his apartment. And yes, okay, she wasn’t honestly expecting an answer, but it would have been nice. Anne was still stubbornly under the impression that this had to be some sort of misunderstanding; even though Eddie definitely had killed people before (hell, she’d killed someone too), she still didn’t think something was within his means. The fact that she’d seen the security footage on the news, though...it _had_ looked like him, that was for sure. Her hand itched to press call one more time before she actually went inside to face this.

But Anne resisted the urge, settling instead on action. She marched up to the front door into the apartment, ignoring the police parked conspicuously on both corners of the street as she made her way inside. Apartment 6, she was pretty sure—if not, she was already pounding on the door so hard the walls were rattling, so hopefully she was right.

It didn’t matter—the door never opened. Or at least, the door to apartment 6 never opened.

 In its place was the door two down, yanked open so quickly that it bounced in its frame against the chain locks still holding it mostly shut. Wary eyes peered out, unmoving as Anne jumped at the sudden motion. Eddie lived with some...strange people.

They stood with locked eyes, the moment maintained for far too long. And despite that, Anne was still unable to make out any details about the person on the other side. Eventually they retreated, shut the door and unlocked it (Anne counted 2 chain locks, which was not to mention however many other locks that had already been opened) before poking their—her—head out. 

Anne waited, as if she’d speak, but that never happened either. It was growing pretty clear that this wasn’t really her night, but she figured she’d try anyways.

“Uh, hello, do you...know Eddie, by chance?” The woman narrowed her eyes in response.

“Your profession. What do you do.” There was absolutely no trust in that voice, and it was...some sort of test, Anne was realizing. Hopefully the truth was the right answer, but hell if she knew. 

“I work in the law, but I’m not—sorry, that sounds like I’m after Eddie. I’m a public defender.” That _was_ the right thing to say, apparently. The door opened the rest of the way, and a woman with hints of bruises still littering her face gestured inside. She was—oh, right. That made sense. Faced with the woman Eddie has spoken of in person, Anne _did_ feel another twinge of guilt at lecturing him for getting involved.

But it was neither here nor there, now, as she slipped inside. She knew Eddie, and was involved in his exploits before: Anne was betting on that being the same now.

Turns out, she was finally in luck. The door was locked behind her, and the woman turned to Anne with steel in her eyes. 

“We should talk.”

 

__________

 

_Fuck. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck, fuck._

So, like, Eddie felt like eventually he’d be able to work this out. There wasn’t a chance of convincing someone he hadn’t killed Joe at the moment, yeah, but he’d find a way to change that at some point. That was the plan, at least. Right now though? 

_Fuck. Fuck! We’re fucked._

Right now he and V were just sort of running as fast as they both could. The duffel bag slammed against his back with every step, but thankfully V had enough influence to stop it from actually hurting—and also to get rid of the “I’m gonna fuckin’ die” feeling that usually came from running, jesus, how far now?

Eddie slowed to a stop on the mostly empty street, squatting against the crumbling wall that lined it to get his bearings. He’d taken them along the least-trafficked paths he knew, going north for god knows what reason and had ended up wherever _here_ was, facing a huge empty parking lot and a busted warehouse and a spray-painted “one way” arrow. A few service trucks lingered but that was about it, and as best he could figure he was somewhere in the still-industrial parts of Dogpatch.

Alright, so he’d gone north-ish, and maybe he’d subconsciously started heading towards Anne’s—but he was gonna shut that down right the fuck now.

**Going where, then?**

“Fuck if I know, man. There used to be a pretty decent place to sleep under 280, not sure if anyone’s still using it but they won’t rat us out if they are. Might head there tonight, ask a few questions?” He still had a bit of time before he had to worry about that, it was only just into the afternoon and his gut instincts were screaming for him to keep moving.

But the nearly abandoned street was about the best place he’d find to start to work out his shit—so he had a few essential things that he could go ahead and get done, first.

He was pretty sure there was fuck-all he could do to stop his phone from being tracked, and as much as it pained him he popped out the SIM card, dragged his foot over it on the pavement until it was a piece of scrap, and tossed the phone into the parking lot. If it survived the throw someone could sell it, but it wasn’t gonna be him. 

Though, money would be fucking nice. His next thought was to track down an ATM before they froze his account, but he was pretty sure all he had in there right now was about twelve dollars anyways, so it wasn’t worth giving up his location over.

**Why do we need money, Eddie?** **_Seriously._ **

Eddie laughed, a bit bitter and a bit sad and also a bit in love. “I mean, yeah bud, fuck capitalism and all that but it’d be nice to. I don’t know. Be able to get a burger maybe?” A warmth behind his neck was all the warning he got before the symbiote equivalent of a snake was coiling around his shoulders. They hummed, changing the burger to a snickers in Eddie’s thoughts (which was a fucking weird feeling), and then very blatantly changed the topic.

**“You’re thinking about that woman again.”**

“Maria?” Eddie sent a mental picture, and the snake-looking form nodded, somehow managing to look guilty on an otherwise animal face. They’d never really talked about her before, but Eddie didn’t carry a ton of hard feelings about it. He knew, like, there wasn’t really anything they could’ve done, and they’d eaten Eddie a little bit too, right?

And still, that wasn’t why he was lingering on her today, and he tried to let them know that. “Just tryna riddle out how many connections I still have, with…people like her. Could be helpful, if we’re gonna be on the streets for awhile.” The best thing to do, really, would be to grab his bike before the police found it and hightail it out of San Francisco, out of California, the whole shebang in general.  

But if he left, that definitely wasn’t making things right. And Joe would have died for nothing—fuck, he did die for nothing. Eddie had to make some other fuckers die in the meantime to pay for that.

And Joe, yeah. Eddie had too much shit he needed to keep track of right now, it was dizzying. But next on the “stuff to do to not get arrested” list was watching the rest of the footage to know what the police had on “him”. Eddie considered pulling out his laptop right there, but eyed the part of the warehouse nearest to them instead. 

“Hey bud, you see that bit where all the windows are blown out—”

It was easy to forget sometimes that words weren’t super fucking necessary, when all he had to do was picture them getting inside without _breaking_ anything (inside or out) before V was on it. 

It was pretty damn cool, though, that by the time Eddie could blink he was standing (kinda precariously, come to think of it) on a platform looking down into a building he hadn’t been in about point-oh-five seconds earlier. And the warehouse was thankfully actually out of use: the only things inside were some broken pallets and a _great_ banner still half-hanging and screaming “DO NOT SMOKE” in all red caps to whatever poor bastards used to work here.

**Can just stay here, Eddie? Seems abandoned.**

“Naw, bud, these don’t stay empty for long. It’s free real estate—sorry, not actually free. Good enough to just stay out of sight for a bit though.” He plopped his ass on the edge of the platform, letting his feet dangle and begging V to please fucking make sure he didn’t fall, before he pulled the laptop out of his bag.

He had to brace himself for it again, decided to just skip to where he’d stopped in the video. But really, he only got as far as typing his password and opening the file before he shut it again with shaking hands. Venom felt his anxiety, apparently, and curled around his shoulders. And fuck, it felt nice.

**“You like it?”** He realized, from the height over his head the sound came from, that they were really fucking big, and he hurried to push down thoughts of that night as he braved a glance over his shoulder.

Okay, yeah. Yeah, they were big. And yeah, he liked it.

**“Meant your shoulders, dumbass.”** Oh, jesus. They were rolling tendrils over his shoulders and somehow he’d just _missed_ that. He really was some kinda fuckin’ size queen.

“Shit, sorry, that uh. Yeah, fuck. That feels really good love.” They squeezed harder at that, and it really did feel excellent, was 100% what he needed right now. The video could wait a second—he leaned back into the touch and hummed.

**“Good. Feels good for us too.”**  

“How does that work, bud? Like if I rubbed you, would it feel good to me?” So maybe there was an unspoken “off” after the “rubbed you”, but that was gonna wholly stay subtext for right now.

**“We don’t have the nervous system for that, Eddie, just borrow yours. We could, if you wanted. Borrow yours.”**

“Uh, no, maybe. Keep my nerves where they are, as long as this isn’t, like, one sided.” The symbiote shook their head behind him, and Eddie relaxed a little bit further at the knowledge. It was easy to forget he was currently in a dingy ass warehouse and wanted for killing someone, the fucking alien was that good at this. He guessed “sharing a nervous system” helped a bit.

And so, okay, maybe he didn’t end up watching the footage again. And maybe he just got a massage and somehow, god fucking knows how, passed out on the platform, and woke up with his laptop back in his bag and his body a safe distance away from the edge and the sun going down. But maybe that all didn’t even matter anyways, because even though he was momentarily calmed down the feeling of _shit fuck we’re fucked_ utter panic came back in a major way later that night.

Well, _later_ later. Because they’d taken a moment to actually breathe and think, first, before deciding to head back to the Audric—but, y’know, inconspicuously this time, and not using Eddie’s face. It was, as far as he could figure, pretty much the only way they’d be able to get any leads on where the hell everyone had packed up and gone. 

The approach was going to be different: They made a plan. A better fucking plan. One that might be unethical, sure, but nothing about the whole situation was ethical.

And that was how they found themselves crouched behind a dumpster in the dark of night, Eddie begging V to erase the existence of his nose and the symbiote gleefully refusing. They were in an alley a few blocks down from the hotel, and being fully dark out the maintenance man hauling out the trash really had no way to see the black wave of goo before it’d snatched him behind the bin and, y’know, sunk its way into his chest. 

The man’s eyes had flashed white for a moment, before he stood up and smiled at Eddie with about ten too many teeth for a human.

**“Look good?”** And, fuck, he was the one who came up with this to begin with but it felt...weird and bad, but also kind of sexy?

“Eh, I don’t know. Missing some of that roguish charm that I’ve come to associate with the whole ‘Venom’ gig.” V laughed, a deep rumble that Eddie could still feel in his own chest, and let a long tongue flop out of the man’s mouth. “V, bud, you gotta. Look human for this to work, right, so some of this—” Eddie gestured, “—is gonna have to…Wait, holy fuck, I don’t look like that when we’re together, do I?”

**“No Eddie. I just look like this now because you like it.”** They grinned again and Eddie went faint, mostly because all of his blood was rushing somewhere _else._

“Jesus _christ,_ can you—god, man, just go get this over with before you fucking kill me. Don’t like not having you with me, anyways.”

**“I don’t like it either, you’re too...fragile, breakable. Kind of puny.”** Christ. Eddie ignored that last bit, and shoved them behind the shoulders out of the alley.

“Fucking act human, you maniac! And if you’re not back here in five minutes—”

  **“—As if you could last that long without me.”** They grinned again, winking with eyes that were _still_ all white, before rounding the corner and disappearing.

Eddie just stood and watched, for a moment, starting to make a comment about how they better make this quick and then realizing why that wouldn’t exactly work. It was one thing to have them not with him when they were still right in front of him, but the silence once they were gone was… Really fucking. Awful. Yeah, awful. He had no idea how he’d gone 30-odd years without an alien keeping him company, actually, and they’d only been together a couple of months.

So if he kind of, y’know, whimpered or something, no one was there to hear it, which basically meant it’d never happened. And instead of doing something stupid or emotional (two distinctly separate categories) he just slumped against the dumpster, pulled out a hoodie and tried to kind of look like a junkie, which really wasn’t that hard.

_Alright, Brock. Four more minutes, probably._ It was fine. Eddie closed his eyes, and waited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long to get out to yall, though this is most likely close to the pace that I'll be updating with now that work/school/shit are rock n rolling again.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for violence and some gore-stuff....yall are into Venom though so y'know how it is. This is also pretty short, warning in advance.

Eddie had assumed Venom’s taunting had been a joke. He’d survived a fairly long time without them by his side, and had only gotten close to legitimately dying a couple of times at _most—_ it was definitely more frequent now that they were partnered, in any case.

Whether or not it was a joke, though, it saw fruition. Eddie had only just managed to eat his anxiety and was waiting calmly like a healthier individual would have done from the start when a man walked past the entrance to the alley.

That in itself wasn’t weird, plenty of other people had walked past at this point with little more than a sympathetic glance—one fucker had even tossed a quarter at him, which was more insulting than anything. What was anyone supposed to do with a quarter? But this man, whoever the fuck he was, did a double take after passing, and backed up to stare. Eddie spared a single glance upwards and felt his mouth fall open. _Aw, shit._

“You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me. You’re really still at it, huh.” The man was shaking his head, baffled.

And yeah, Eddie felt about the same, because he was currently staring the motherfucker who’d brought the laptop to the store right in the face. He didn’t manage a reply, just scrambled to his feet and waited, heart dancing in his throat.

The other man clearly hadn’t made up his mind about what to do with the situation himself. He took a step forward and paused—and Eddie didn’t fail to notice the way his hand lingered at his hip.

“Why are you such a pain in the ass, man?” Eddie laughed at that, laced with tension.

“Just my nature, I guess.” How long had it been? Over five minutes, right?

“Sorry ‘bout your boss. Business, y’know.”

Eddie tried to hide his grimace, opting to shrug instead. “I get it.” _Come on, V._

“Just need you off our asses... You gonna? Get off our asses, I mean?”

“Not a chance, man. Sorry.” _Hey V, darling, love, if you can hear me I might be about to get my ass kicked or maybe murdered so like if you could come back right the fuck now—_

“Yeah, we figured. But it’s necessary. Sorry again, in that case.” The hand at the man’s hip was suddenly in motion, and that was Eddie’s cue to turn and run.

So, okay. He knew how guns worked and everything, right? But somehow, he still managed to be surprised when faced with the fact that you can’t, y’know, outrun a bullet.

It took him a moment to realize what had even happened. One moment he was busting his ass down the alley, trying to get to the corner and turn, and the next he felt something...shove him in the back?

It was enough to make him stumble, and he was suddenly hearing a buzzing noise that he felt in his guts too. And why was his stomach wet? Wet and hot, so hot it hurt. He managed to stay on his feet until he lifted his shirt and... _Oh, god._ Were those his intestines?

He moaned, long and low, and fell to his knees. His gun knowledge was _just_ enough for him to have the conscious thought of “huh, must be a .45” before he felt himself falling face first into the pavement.

Except he never actually made it there. If he could have heard anything, he would have heard someone scream his name with two voices, one he recognized and one he didn’t. He would have heard the unholy crunch as the man was shoved against the alley wall so hard his ribs cracked, heard the clatter of the gun hitting the ground and heard a ripping sound as the symbiote stretched across the alley, tearing themself free from the other host and desperately melting into Eddie after.

He didn’t hear it, but as he found himself suddenly covered in black goo he was able to hear V’s memories of it, to see the way he’d crumpled in the alley and feel the wave of pure emotion Venom had felt in response. They hurriedly shared the past ten minutes in a burst as well _—_ ** _leaving Eddie walking to the hotel anyone in room 216 no sorry bud they shipped out to an apartment south of here contact them directly going outside a gunshot Eddie Eddie Eddie_** _—_ that ended in a frustrated growl.

**Humans are too soft, and you are too stupid. Stop letting people hurt you!** But Eddie felt the love in that voice, and relaxed into their embrace as metal pieces popped out of his gut and his intestines moved back into place and his kidney reformed into one piece and the hole on either side of his body was temporarily knit closed, and they stood together as one, towering in the alley and grabbing the man gasping for breath on the ground.

Venom dragged him around the corner, oblivious to the way he struggling against them. The alley here was narrower, with barely a couple of feet separating the buildings, and it was a tight fit when Venom hoisted him up against the wall by his neck, squeezing threateningly. It was only now that Eddie could feel the extent of their anger.

**“You maggot, you parasite, how** **_dare_ ** **you hurt Eddie. Do you know what it’ll look like after we pop your head like a zit? We’ll have to lick your brain off the** **_walls,_ ** **you—"**

_—V, buddy, hey pal, you can tone it down a bit, maybe._

Venom narrowed their eyes, and frowned. **“We are going to destroy him, Eddie.”** Neither of them really took note of the man gasping and begging under them.

_Oh, fuck yeah, like for sure, but stop squeezing his neck so tight first? We need to ask him some questions. Let me take over the talking for a sec._ They wanted to say no, he could tell, fearing exposing any part of him, but eventually relented and peeled themself back from Eddie’s face. A shifting feeling was all the warning he got before his mouth erupted in sharp daggers, rather than the flat of his normal teeth, which was actually pretty sick—and so Eddie grinned as he leaned forward.

“Hey, sorry about this. It’s just business, y’know?” Somehow the man’s face managed to grow even paler.

“W-what _are_ you? What is this, oh my god, the fuck are you?” Eddie smiled wider, not entirely of his own volition—he could feel some of Venom creeping along his jaw and up his temples.

“Listen, I can’t stop my partner here from killing you at this point, but I also wouldn’t anyways, y’know? Because you don’t get to just, jesus, _kill innocent people._ But if you, maybe, answer a few questions for me, I might decide to make it less painful. Does that sound good? You think you can help me out?” He nodded desperately, pleading with words that didn’t matter. Eddie patted his cheek with a hand covered by thick black claws.

“Good, that’s good. Let’s go slow here, okay? You all packed up and left—where did you go?”

“Fuck, we—we got a place on Turk street.”

“That’s a long street, you wanna be more specific?”

“Four seven, uhm, shit, four seven seven, I think, shit, please don’t—“

“—Alright, you’re doing really well. Who all is there?”

“We got, uh, a few apartments, uhm. The girls and one for clients and—“

“How many girls?”

“Only a few, maybe nine? Ten? It v-varies, we mostly get them to sell off, turnaround is pretty quick, we only keep the really special ones, m’not sure...” _Jesus christ. Jesus_. Eddie’s head spun, faced again with the brutal reality of what he was involved in.

“Damnit. You motherfuckers. Do you feel sorry, like, at all? Does it ever cross your mind that what you’re doing is fucking atrocious?”

“Yes, m’sorry, oh my god please don’t, oh god, I’m _sorry!”_ Oh. Whoops. Eddie had been squeezing tighter without realizing, and let go in a hurry. Couldn’t have him falling unconscious, or also have his head popping off entirely. He needed to get his shit together.

“Okay. Okay. That’s fine, you can make up for it right now. The truck you have—the ImmunoVista one—where’d that come from?”

“What? We just, there were a bunch of ‘em, someone selling on the cheap because they’d gone bankrupt or something like that, we just got the one, hadn’t painted over it yet, I don’t know...” Realization suddenly dawned on the man’s face. “Oh, my god. The Life Foundation, you—the shit about aliens, that was real? That was, you, this is. Oh my god. Oh my god.”

Eddie frowned down at him, remembering the fire alarm. “You didn’t know?”

“We just—just thought you were fuckin’ weird, or something, is that what, I mean, is it why you had that seizure?”

He didn’t answer, turned his head down as he thought. _So no connection to the Life Foundation?_

**We thought so, Eddie.** Fair, but it seemed too specific to all have been a coincidence. He’d have to keep looking into it. For now, though:

“I think we’re done here.” The man whimpered as Eddie’s teeth grew and he was once again fully embraced by Venom. This time around, though, he was more than happy to take a backseat, and gave V his blessing to go all out.

They were grinning as Eddie gave it, and pressed the man against the wall by his chest in anticipation of whatever they had planned for him.

**“You should have seen the way that bullet destroyed Eddie’s organs. A mess, you blew a hole right through him.”** Venom paused in mock consideration. **“We don’t want you to have to miss out on it, though, so we’ll show you what it was like.”**

There was a pause where Venom sat radiating pure satisfaction, drool dripping onto the man’s terrified face—Eddie would be lying if he said he didn’t take some pleasure in it as well. Then, in a flash, they plastered part of themselves over his mouth before raking a claw from groin to sternum. Eddie cursed from inside their body. _Holy shit, V!_

They had pretty effectively eviscerated him, everything that had been inside a moment before was now spilled out onto the pavement. It was gruesome, a display of reds and pinks and browns steaming in the night air, but Eddie gritted his teeth. _Nine girls._ He didn’t feel bad.

And the man himself didn’t get a chance to really process what had happened, his eyes were rolled up into the back of his skull with a silenced scream when Venom bit his head clean off a moment later. Eddie asked, in vain, for V not to eat everything else off the dirty ass ground, but he was smugly reminded of the necessity of not leaving evidence as they hunched over the carnage like an animal. **Doesn’t hurt that it is delicious, too.**

Yeah, maybe it was fucked up, but he _did_ taste pretty fucking good. So did killing someone involved with this in general, though.

All that was left of him by the time they’d finished was the faint smell of iron, and once assured that the danger was gone V sank slowly back into Eddie’s body, lingering at his stomach to finish up the work they’d started on the bullet hole.

And then Eddie was left standing on his own, but this time with the comforting presence inside him that he’d grown so used to. He was struck by the contrast, a little bit, with the realization that he really didn’t ever want to be without the symbiote.

**That’s good, Eddie, because I am not going anywhere even if you wanted it.**

“Ok, well, that’s kinda problematic bud, like if I was someone else, but I don’t want that so...I guess, it’s fine?” He shrugged, started back to where he left his bag as if nothing had even happened. Though like, yeah. Something definitely _did_ happen. And kinda dreading it he lifted his shirt as he walked, fingers drifting over the pink scar tissue now adding to his collection. It was pretty big on the front side, he’d had...a decent chunk of his stomach missing.

**We try not to leave marks, but your skin grows back a different color if we heal it quickly like that.**

Eddie shook his head and lowered his shirt. “Naw, love, don’t worry about it. Better than being dead, y’know?”

**We would never let that happen, Eddie, told you.**

He was going to make a comment about how he’d gotten awfully close a few times, but cut himself off at the realization that all of those times were pretty much when they hadn’t been bonded. So yeah, he was kinda, like, a death trap for himself, apparently.

**Yes. You need us. We are also never going to make a plan where we must separate again, ever.** God, yeah. Probably a good idea.

They appeared out from over his shoulder as he stooped for the duffel bag, growling. **“We are**   ** _serious,_ ** **Eddie. Not a joke.”**

“Christ, man, you can’t just—” Eddie peered out the alley before turning and darting to where they were out of sight, “—Listen, I know! I agree!” The symbiote expanded their form from a head to an entire torso, and Eddie swallowed. That was fucking unfair.

**“No one else is allowed to hurt you.”**

“Bud, I don’t want them—Oh, uh. Wow. No one _else,_ huh?” They nodded, pressed forward until his back was to the brick wall. “What the fuck is _that_ supposed to mean?”

**“It means you would find it pleasurable if it was** **_us,_ ** **and we know that.”** _Jesus._ Maybe he moaned, maybe it was more of an undignified squeak, whatever the fuck noise Eddie Brock had made he felt like he was going to fucking die on the spot, after. They sat for a moment, Eddie panting and looking up at Venom through his lashes, before he made a strangled sound and shoved them backwards by their chest.

“Okay, okay, yeah. You’re fucking right and all but I like, god, V I’m so fucking tired, y’know?” He gestured to the tent in his pants, grunting. “I literally can’t deal with this thing right now.” Their eyes narrowed, and the cruel grin turned into a frown.

**“We’re exhausted.”**

“Yep. Kinda, like, one of the worst days of my life.” One of them. He could at least be satisfied with the fact that it, somehow, didn’t take the cake.

**“Go to sleep, Eddie.”**

“Don’t really have a place to right now, but I’ll get on it as soon as possible, for sure.” A hot second later, and a tendril was latching onto the edge of the building over them, launching Eddie up and depositing him safely on the roof with the symbiote curled back up inside him.

**You can sleep here? We will keep you safe.** Alright, not super ideal, but it’d probably work. And he didn’t have a better idea. Eddie shrugged, propped his bag up against one of the low walls of the roof to get out the blanket and settled down against it. He’d certainly been less comfortable before, somehow he was tired enough that this was maybe on-par with the air mattress. Or he was just beyond giving a shit—he _had_ slept in a tetanus-trap earlier today and been fine with it.

So Eddie was already content with the fact that this was his reality when he flopped his head down onto the lumpy ass bag and closed his eyes… Except a moment later it kind of wasn’t lumpy. It was soft as all hell, actually. And so was the concrete roof?

He dared open an eye, peering down over himself.  So the blanket was the same, cool, but the back and the ground were now covered with a shifting, shimmering pool of black. Kinda made his heart ache in a not-good-but-also-good kind of way.

“V? That doesn’t bother you, me laying on you?”

**No, Eddie. We talked about this—Only you have the advanced nervous system. Can feel that you’re more comfortable, so we are more comfortable.** There was something else there, that Eddie waited for. And they seemed hesitant to say it, but eventually let it out with a grumble. **Even if we could feel it, would still do the same thing. Care about you. A lot.**

“Aw, darling.” Eddie rubbed his hands up and down the the surface under him, whether or not they could feel it. “Is that a love confession?” A small head popped up under his hand, butting up into it and eventually swim-moving to rub against his lips.

**“Not sure how many of them you need before it sticks, but yes.”** A pause. **“Darling. That one’s good too, Eddie.”**

“Oh, yeah. Huh. My mouth has a mind of its own I guess, so like, glad it’s good.” He gave their head a small kiss before rolling onto his side. “Is this okay?”

**Perfect, Eddie.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big sorry for how goddamn long it took me to get this out....I'm also gonna be at sea for like 2 weeks and I won't be able to write jack shit—if the next chapter takes _extra_ long that's why, but it's definitely still coming!


End file.
